TIMAC

Cohort 8 Training Days in January 2012

2012-01-24T15:52:00.000-08:00

Another year, another January, and so many new things to learn and share. Cohort 8 participants said that the mentoring skills workshop about overcoming resistance is not only useful in educational professional development environment, but in almost any life situation in general. The afternoon technology training session saw five TIMACers presenting and even more sharing on the topics of using interactive whiteboards, document cameras and creating and maintaining online presence.

And of course, our super mentors made this face-to-face event even more fun and engaging by going an extra mile and lying on the floor to get that particularly good angle for that great photo. Thank you Susan C.
:-)

More resources about the content of the even can be found on our wiki, along the evaluations of the day.

And here are the resulting photos, all 108 of them.

Branka's Site Visit with Pamela at Jewish Vocational Services

2011-12-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

The visit to JVS was filled with informative conversations,enlightening tours and impressive demonstrations.

This is what Pamela outlined in her formal plan:

“Buildout curriculum that incorporates Eno interactive whiteboard technology into themajority (65%) of Job Search Skillsworkshops; train workshop facilitators (15+ staff) on using Eno in theworkshops they teach; identify Eno “gurus” in each department (4-5 people) toserve as a resource for department colleagues; incorporate Eno into all youthand bridge programs offered onsite at JVS (3-4 programs total); meet surveygoal of 50% of JVS staff reporting comfort using Eno for meetings and otherevents with use on a biweekly basis…

I would like toincorporate at least four activities that use the Eno interactive whiteboardinto our Resume Essentials I workshop. I’vechosen this workshop due to its popularity and relevancy to all clientsregardless of job goal or skill level. OnceI’ve finalized the curriculum, I’d like to train a small group of three staffmembers from different departments to pilot the new Resume Essentials Iworkshops and provide feedback for improving or enhancing Eno activities. Ultimately, through this project I’d like tooffer staff the opportunity to receive support while experimenting with the Enoand developing their skills and comfort with this technology….

As a workforcedevelopment agency, we also strive to prepare our clients for the technologicaldemands of the workplace. One way we cando this is to give our clients opportunities to see how enjoyable andnon-threatening technology can be, too. I believe this is just the first step on a longer journey to embrace thebenefits technology in the classroom and workplace. ”

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And as a bonus, here are some videos of Pamela doing a training on ENO interactive whiteboard and Microsoft's One Note.

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Barry's Site Visit with Richard at West Valley Occupational Center

2011-12-15T00:48:00.000-08:00

I met with Richard Rose and administrator Angela Dimascio of West Valley Occupational Center in their newly revamped computer lab. Still some tweaking to be done equipment-wise, but teachers are signing up in greater numbers to use the new computers. Richard has a couple of projects in mind and several teachers already signed up for his mentoring project/s. One of the projects involves increased use of newly purchased document cameras; the other increased use of the lab. It is evident that Richard has been making excellent progress in developing his plan, recruiting mentees, and leveraging administration support for technology integration.

Branka's Site Visit with Christine at Mt. Diablo Adult Education

2011-12-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

Christine is working closely with her coordinators, administrators and ABE/ASE colleagues to expand their menu of options of hardware and software for technology in the ABE/ASE/GED departments with document readers and interactive white boards, which include the STAR White Boards and the Dymo Mimio. Some other options include teaching a lesson with some of the new software such as READON, or using one of the many educational websites to supplement teaching and learning.

The first step Christine has implemented is to conduct an ‘environmental study’ to determine how the placement of equipment in the room affect the success of integrating it into instruction. She has developed a questionnaire specific to their local set of factors and will collect and present results to the administrators.

The next step is to offer training on the three main types of equipment and accompanying software.

The final step is to develop lesson plans and activities that work for individual teachers, their subject matter and their learners. Christine has her work cut out for the rest of the year. And all of this in addition to organizing and facilitating a local GED teachers network.

Barry's Site Visit with Kristy at Oxnard Adult School

2011-12-08T00:30:00.000-08:00

Site visit to Kristy! December 8, 2011. I visited her main campus site at Oxnard Adult School and her branch location site in Port Hueneme. Port Hueneme is the "west coast home of the Seabees." Oxnard and Port Hueneme are an interesting mix of military, agricultural and university communities (California State Univer sity Channel Islands is just next door in Camarillo). Kristy's main campus is in the middle of installing new wall-mounted short-throw LCD projectors in each classroom. So new, they're hanging on the walls but the cables hadn't been installed yet. Increasing teacher utilization of the new projectors and accompanying document cameras will probably be one component of Kristy's mentoring project.

Top picture - Kristy in her main campus classroom
Bottom set: Branch location classroom, iPhone under the document cam, personal interactive low-tech whiteboard, Activexpressions interactive classroom response device.

Susan's Site Visit with Sandra at Poway Adult School

2011-12-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting Sandie Aveni-Pohlman at her site, Poway Adult School. This is a relatively new site for Poway; but before moving across town, they planned ahead and invested in technology for their new site. Every classroom is equipped with an interactive whiteboard, and document camera.

Sandie first showed me the new teachers’ workroom. She was especially excited about their new copy machine. She then introduced me to two of her mentors, Kara Valenzuela and Monica Dickenson. Kara is an ESL teacher, and Monica is a GED, ASE teacher. I also met Kathy Ditrapani who is the ROP Office Specialist and all-around support person for ASE, GED, and ESL programs.

Next, Sandie and Kara introduced me to Kathleen Porter, director of Poway Adult School. She was very excited about Sandie’s participation in TIMAC and is very supportive of her project. We visited the ESL computer lab where Sandie had set up a PowerPoint outlining and expressing her thoughts about her TIMAC project.

We talked a long time about her project and did some fine-tuning on some of her ideas. Her first and primary goal is to demystify technology and get all ESL teachers familiar with their new Eno interactive whiteboards. The lab is currently equipped with 16 computers plus a teacher’s station; however, they want to increase the number computers in the future.

The ESL classrooms are all equipped with an interactive whiteboard, document camera, a wireless clip-on microphone for the teacher, and another wireless microphone for student use. Taking the time and resources to invest in their technological infrastructure has really paid off for Poway.

My tour concluded with a visit to the ASE/GED classroom and lab and also a peek at the CTE Business Occupations and ROP lab. It was an amazing visit. Sandi has a great start on her TIMAC project and the enthusiasm for technology to support and inspire her mentees.

Susan's Site Visit with Francisco at Chaffey Adult School

2011-11-29T20:10:00.000-08:00

November 18, 2011
As I drove into the parking lot, I noticed that there were two distinct schools. On the left was Chaffey Adult School and on the right was Alternative Studies Chaffey Community Day School. I met initially with Eileen Watson and Dave Berry. Their administrator, who had nominated Francisco Lopez for TIMAC, had left the adult school, and they wanted to know about OTAN, TIMAC, and how Francisco was involved.
I learned from Dave and Eileen that the school had recently received a Policy to Performance (P2P) grant to support college and career readiness for low-skilled adults and adult learners. Their program is called “From Here to Career”, and they currently have 63 students in their program. They are using an online program called Career Cruising. They shared their online program and their excitement for the program, but they had been running into some problems with contacting students and getting students to actively use the program.
Francisco arrived and immediately stepped in to provide support. In the end, Eileen and Dave volunteered to be his mentees. They were amazed by the technology and support available to them through OTAN. Before we left the office, Francisco had a good idea about what his TIMAC project would involve and some great ideas to accomplish it.
Francisco then gave me a tour of his campus. We began with a tour of the CASAS eTesting room adjacent to the front office. Students are immediately tested upon enrollment. Next we visited the computer lab, which is located across the parking at the Chaffey Community Day School. There is a good relationship between the two schools. The adult school hopes to use the lab for more staff development in the future. Francisco also explained to me that they like to distinguish themselves as Chaffey Adult School.
We then visited several classrooms, which all had Smartboards and document cameras. The adult school has two additional computer labs. We went first to see the Microsoft Office Lab where I met Gail Cirilo who talked briefly about her class. We then visited the Career Technical Education Computer Lab, which is the newest lab. My tour ended with a quick visit to Francisco’s two classrooms. Francisco is excited about his TIMAC project, and his love of technology is apparent.

Susan's Site Visit with Lupe at El Monte-Rosemead Adult School

2011-11-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

November 14, 2011
Lupe Lozano met me in the school lobby, and our first stop was the ESL Computer Lab. There I met Sara Shapiro, who nominated Lupe for TIMAC. She was pleased and very excited to have Lupe part of TIMAC. The school recently installed Eno Interactive Whiteboards, and Lupe will be helping train teachers on how to use them in the classroom.
Later, I was delightfully surprised to meet Bruce Patnou, one of her mentees, and Vicki Moreno, resource specialist. Bruce wanted to know a little more about being a mentee, since technology was not something that comes naturally to him, but he so wants to learn. We reassured him that Lupe would be there to support him. Lupe also has two other mentees, Mary Laffey and Jesse Veliz who were not able to be there.
ESL students spend an hour and a half each week in the computer lab. Lupe shared some of the many software programs they use with their ESL students, which include All-Star, Triple Play Plus, Side-By-Side, Mousercise, and Tux Typing.
Next I was given a grand tour of their amazing site. First we visited the Basic Computer Skills Lab. Students must learn basic computer skills before moving on to a specialized area of computer training. We peeked into the Microsoft Office PC lab during class and then visited the Microsoft Office Mac Lab.
We strolled down the hall to Business Occupations where we met Annette Felix, an accounting instructor. She wanted to know about OTAN and TIMAC, and then she gave us a tour of several business labs and told us about the classes that were taught in each lab. Our tour ended in the Telephone Techniques classroom.
Next Lupe took me to visit the Industrial Technology Department Machine Shop. Some of Lupe’s ESL students take a machine shop class in the morning and her class in the afternoon. I was very impressed with the items designed by students. There was even a lab in the Machine Shop!
We visited ABE, GED, High School Diploma, and CAHSEE Prep classrooms, which all provided varying levels of technological support for teachers. Our last stop was the ESL wing where I got to visit Lupe’s classroom. Lupe shared her Eno board and the many things it could do. We talked about her project and the support she will need. Lupe has some great ideas, and she is excited to put those ideas into action. It was a nice ending to a wonderful afternoon with Lupe.

Branka's Site Visit with Heather at Campbell Adult and Community Education

2011-11-21T14:33:00.000-08:00

In addition to being a resource teacher, Heather is thecoordinator and one of the teachers for the distance learning program at CampbellAdult and Community Education (CACE). The school offers an ESL DistanceLearning program, where students take an instructional DVD and relatedmaterials home, or work online, to practice reading, writing, listening,pronunciation, and grammar. Learners meet with an ESL teacher once a week toreview their progress. CACE offers eight (8) levels of instruction toaccommodate beginning, intermediate, and advanced English learners. Studentsmay enroll in ESL Distance Learning in addition to a traditional ESL class, ortake Distance Learning exclusively.

One of the many efforts that Heather is spearheading is tobring more online offerings to both their blended and pure distance learninglearners. Last year she participated in OTAC (Online Teaching Academy by OTAN),and got exposure to Moodle learning management system. She has worked with anumber of vendors to convert their video checkout materials to the onlinedelivery format.

This year, CACE invested in a number of licenses for EASYESL Online. Heather will focus on implementing this curriculum in theirclassroom based ESL program, and if there are a few licenses left over, shewill try it with her distance program learners.

As many of us know, implementing new curriculum carries anumber of challenges from teacher and learner buy-in to overcoming many typesof technical interferences to establishing the level of effectives of the wholeeffort. During my visit, Heather shared with me the steps she will be takingfrom November to May in order to get all of things accomplished.

Additional bonus for me was to see Heather work with some ofher learners.

I am looking forward to further developments in Heather’sTIMAC project.

Barry's Site Visit with Farzana at Evans Community Adult School

2011-11-10T11:17:00.000-08:00

I visited Farzana at Evans Community Adult School in the heart of Los Angeles. Evans is the Division of Adult and Community Education's flagship site. Farzana is currently teaching computer applications classes. Farzana is very proud of her new StarBoard-a very "short throw" overhead-projected interactive white board. Due to the physical layout of her room, and the
fact that with her new StarBoard she has two projection methods, Farzana finds that the optimal use for her StarBoard is small group instruction. Her older ceiling-mounted projector is still useful for whole-group instruction as the screen is more centrally located in the classroom.

Farzana also has started to get very good results from her exploratory survey asking for faculty to participate as her mentees. She is getting great support from her administrators too. There are some natural projects for her to develop arising out of recent technology acquisitions at her school: every classroom has a new technology cart with a laptop, a document cam, and an LCD projector. Do you think that there might be some technology mentoring needed by at least one or two teachers?

Barry Bakin

Branka's Site Visit with Mato at Fresno Adult School

2011-11-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

Friday, November 4, 2011

I visited Mato Kuwapi-Parker at Manchester Center. When he had tried explaining to me where this Fresno Adult School location was, I cut him short saying I’d look it up on a map. I thought I’d save him time. What a life lesson that was! It turns out this location is at a shopping mall, with a ‘back entrance’ and on the second floor. So for a good 45-munutes I experienced mixed feeling of being flustered about wasting so much time finding him and being impressed by this clever idea to have a school location where our clients/learners are. I finally settled in at the table surrounded by half-a-dozen members of Mato’s advisory committee for Emergency Medical Technician and other medical courses. Present were administrators, teachers and other staff from Fresno Adult Education, but also local partners from the county and medical institutions. Mato presented Outline and competencies for the course and took comments and recommendations by advisors, particularly about specific skills/knowledge, equipment, labor market and facility information.

Throughout the conversation interspersed were his examples of how he and his colleagues use technology to enhance teaching and learning – from Facebook to keep in touch with students, to student response systems for formative and summative assessment, to videos created by learners acting out situations that they will be experiencing when doing this job. Here’s the latest video Mato created with his EMT learners, in collaboration with ESL learners, too.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2046960493259&set=vb.274834213302&type=2&theater

After the meeting, I helped Mato put away all the props [which takes time and he has to do after every class] and we headed to the Cesar Chavez center to meet more of his colleagues.

In conversation with Susan Guzzetta, a TIMAC Cohort 3 participant herself, we went over what Mato’s TIMAC goals will be for the rest of the year. He will support a number of ESL teachers while they embark on using Moodle-based courses in blended environment.

We had just enough time to get a personal tour of the the GrapeVine Café at the school where the Foodservice Program offers students intensive practical experience in food preparation and production. I am looking forward to going back to Fresno for this year’s CCAE conference, May 1-2, 2012, organized by this dedicated group of professionals.

Barry's Site Visit with Wilder at Rowland (Heights) Adult and Community Education

2011-11-03T11:13:00.000-07:00

I visited Wilder November 3rd at the Rowland Adult and Community Education computer lab where he brings his class once a week from their branch location. He has one several confirmed mentees already, and a firm idea on what his project will be. Congratulations to Wilder for a good start!

The computer lab is very well appointed with an interactive white board built into the wall of sliding white boards and would otherwise be unused in the evening at the time that Wilder teaches his branch class. Wilder's students carpool over because they are very happy to have access to the computer-based instruction that he provides. Wilder certainly deserves
kudos for taking the initiative in optimizing his school's technology resources while delivering desired and needed technology and language instruction to a student population that wouldn't otherwise have access to it.

Barry Bakin

TIMAC at LA CATESOL Regional - October 22, 2011

2011-10-24T17:26:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles Regional CATESOL: Bridges to Success: Pathways& Transitions

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Cypress College

Hosted by the NOCCCD School of Continuing Education

Plenary speaker, Sarah Lynn, who among many of her other roles,teaches at the Bridge Program at the Center for Workplace Development atHarvard University, presented the audience with the following question:

Successful student andworkers have strong organizations skills, advocate for themselves, communicate wellwith people from other backgrounds, ask good questions works well in teams,solve problems in creative ways, and use technology appropriately. How can we,as classroom ESL teachers, strengthen these skills in our students?

TIMACer presentation:

4 EASY Online Tools to Supercharge Your ESL Class

9:00-9:45 am

Katalin Gyurindak (Cohort 4) and Abdel Belblidia (Cohort 8),Mt. San Antonio College

Add more tools to your toolbox! The purpose of thispresentation is to introduce free Web 2.0 sites to help ESL instructors enhancetheir teaching and make their class more appealing to 21^st centurylearners. You will be shown examples of collaborative storytelling, talkingphotos/characters and quiz making.

Cohort 8 Training Days in October 2011

2011-10-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

Another amazing group of adult educators came together in Sacramento for a day of training about mentoring skills and effective technology integration. They are our Cohort 8. And this group was equipped with mobile devices, GALORE! We haven't seen so many iPads and iPhones and other smart phones in one place EVER.

The content of the two days is compiled on our October training wiki page.

Here are a few multimedia highlights from the two days:

Video interviews after Walk Pair Share activity on the first day

Road Maps

A few pictures...(just 140)

A TIMACer Doing Green Volunteer Work

2011-09-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

Suzanne Ludlum, Cohort 4, participant from Oakland Adult School, wrote about her recent experience in Solarthon 2011 with the goal to install multiple solar electric systems in a local neighborhood in partnership with low-income homeowners.

Greetings, my friends. Thanks for coming through and donating to Solarthon 2011. Together with you, all the volunteers like myself and the corporate teams, we raised $280K for Alternative Grids. In addition to installing 13 solar electric systems in Bayview Hunter's Point yesterday, these funds support the Laney College Green Jobs Program/Plowshares.

I worked on the Women's Build -- it was so great to work with young women who are leaders in the Green Movement/Green Wave! I was part of the ground team, responsible for installing the inverter, testing the panels, and helping to get the panels on the roof (2-story).

Here are two pictures: One the happy home owner excited when the inverter was turned on and her panels beginning to feed the grid! The other is the inverter team looking proud of our hard work.

Thanks so much for being part of this effort. It was a beautiful day for sure.
Peace,
Suzanne

Happy homeowner at Solarthon 2011, by Suzanne Ludlum

Suzanne Ludlum's team after installing a solar panel

A TIMACer & OTACer to Co-present in a Webinar about Open Source Math

2011-08-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

Leila Rosemberg, participant in TIMAC Cohort 2 and OTAC 1.0,will be showing what she developed with OTAN while piloting NROC’s Algebra 1acourse. The Webinar will take place on August 25 at 11 am Pacific Time.

While piloting the course she’s used Google doc forms in myMoodle, Hot Potatoes vocabulary quizzes, and interactive whiteboard.

Here’s the announcement form NROC:

Join a pioneering group of NROC Network members who arecreating and sharing unique materials to extend the NROC courses they are usingwith students. You will hear about project customization in Moodle, addingpersonal screen grabs, creating study guides, and helping students and teachercolleagues create their own video worked examples.

You are invited to attend this free webinar offering. Seatingis limited, so click HERE and register today!

New video about Cell Phones

2011-07-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

OTAN has just produced a video about Mobile Phones in Adult Education. One of the three featured teachers and their learners, is our Cohort 7 participant, Sean C. Abajian.
The video is 6:22 minutes long.

If you are looking for more ideas about how you can use cell phones with your learners visit our wiki page on this topic, mostly based on the workshop developed by Susan Gaer from Santa Ana College.

TIMAC at CASAS Summer Institute 2011

2011-06-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

In the words of Pat Rickard, President of CASAS, “each of us knows that adult education is crucial to the lives and futures of the millions we serve, yet we continue to face unprecedented budget cuts and challenging circumstances.” The time we spent at this year’s Summer Institute made it a little easier to be in today’s reality as we shared challenges and successes and learned how to be effective with our assessment data.

During the keynote presentation, Cheryl Keenan, the Director of Adult Education and Literacy in the Office of Vocational and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education, emphasized the importance for adult education programs to show that we are a part of the solution instead of being the part of the spending problem. Integrated or contextualized programs where ESL/ABE are taught within workplace context are a promising model.

Another keynote speaker, Barbara Endel, introduced the initiative she co-leads in Jobs for the Future – to enable low-skilled adults to complete technical and occupational degrees across more than 30 community colleges. The project is currently titled Breaking Through. Adult basic education programs from all the states will benefit from a virtual academy with resources and tools related to the topic of “helping low-skilled adults prepare for and succeed in occupational and technical degree programs by focusing on strategies that create effective pathways through pre-college and degree-level programs and result in college completion.” Ms. Endel left a strong impression on audience when she shared an interactive map representing job loss and gain nationally from 2007 to August 2010.

http://labs.slate.com/articles/slate-job-map-updated

TIMACers spotted:
* Michael Barnes
* Laura Cifuentes
* Susan Briggs
* Susan Guzzetta
* Diana Batista
* Kathleen Bywater
* Penny Pearson
* Branka Marceta

And in the evenings, being the technology enthusiasts that we are, we coined a new concept – ‘going dancing at the Microsoft store’. We came across one of the 10 “physical" stores Microsoft has nationwide. Comparable to Apple store, this was the opportunity to explore the latest mobile, touch-screen, productivity, entertainment and gaming technologies, but the biggest hit was Kinect fox Xbox 360. The technology behind is a high definition camera that senses body movements. One of the games, Dance Central, was a fun way to try it out. Here’s what I consider to be an embarrassing video of me dancing, but since the technology behind it is so fascinating, I can’t help but share (Branka).

Cohort 7 Training and Report Days - Days 4 & 5

2011-05-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

It was a great mix of training, learning and sharing on the topics of social media for building community and collaboration, modeling positive online presence and creating Web enhanced resources for teachers and students. Other topics included cell phones for education, transitioning learners into workplace and post-secondary education, and screening learners for vision difficulties.

All of the materials can be found at http://timac.wikispaces.com/May11

Here are a few comments by the CDE consultants who attended:

Dear Marian et. al.,

Another great TIMAC. The presentations this year really brought us up-to-date, and they were also very entertaining with the addition of humor and dancing!

Kudos to you and all the amazing staff at OTAN.

Diane Hurley

Hi Marian,

Thank you for inviting us to the TIMAC presentations today. They were wondereful and very informative. OTAN has done a superb job creating a learning community where participants are very engaged and supportive of one another. The relationships formed at TIMAC will be long lasting and pay real dividends down the road! Great job, OTAN.

... It...allowed us the opportunity to engage our programs at a time when we are not able to travel and maintain that connection.

Take care,
Steve Schwendimann

TIMAC at 2011 CCAE COABE National Conference

2011-04-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

Photo by Brian Castagne from Project Read at the San Francisco Public Library

This year we had another excellent opportunity to experience a national conference in our own
‘backyard’. The joint national conference between California Council for Adult Education (CCAE)
and Commission on Adult Basic Education (COABE) titled Literacy to Work; Adult Education for
the Global Economy gave conference attendees the option to participate in a wide and
impressive range of professional development workshops and networking events.

Throughout the conference we spotted the following TIMACers:


TIMACers at COABE, April 19 2011

David Doneff
Andria Keiser
Kathleen Bywater
Leif Williams
Michael Lewis
Frances Frazier
Susan Briggs
Susan Guzzeta
Wayne Miyahara
Suzanne Ludlum

Also super mentors:

Susan Gaer
Francisca Wentworth
Blair Roy
Penny Pearson

It was invaluable to have the opportunity to have a few meals together and longer
conversations in a relaxing atmosphere.

About the conference

To paraphrase the introduction to the program book by the planning committee, there were
many fascinating programs, keynotes, activities, and special events for our professional
development and enjoyment. And we walked away with many new ideas and continue
benefiting from that learning well beyond this conference. Dr. Frank Benest, one of the keynote
speakers, addressed the conference theme - Literacy to Work: Adult Education for a Global
Economy - and set the stage for the plenary workshops and breakout sessions to follow.

It was difficult for us to choose which session to attend! During the plenary sessions we got a
chance to participate in one of the four Inquiry Areas and then chose if we would like to go to
the breakout sessions related to that particular inquiry area, or selected from sessions related
to Public Policy, Post-Secondary Transitions and Student Re-entry, Distance Education,
Workforce Development, Advocacy and Marketing, Program Management and Improvement
and much more.

During Tuesday‘s opening session we heard from Cheryl Keenan, Director of the U.S.
Department of Education's Division of Adult Education and Literacy in the Office of Vocational
and Adult Education,

Wednesday afternoon featured an opportunity for us to again meet in Inquiry Area groups to tie
together concepts we had been working with over the past three days.

Some of our SF Bay Area TIMACers and their schools put combined thousands of hours of
volunteer time into preparing for this memorable conference. For example, Martinez Adult Ed, where Leif Willams is from, created fun decorations representing parts of San Francisco.

Decorations by Martinez and Mt. Diablo Adult Ed

TIMAC presentations and awards:

Wayne Miyahara received Excellence in Teaching Award for the South Coast CCAE Region

A page from the booklet from the CCAE Awards Breakfast on April 20, 2011

Kathy Bywater presented in:

Transitioning English Learners into Health Care Career Classes
Are your health care career students having difficulty because their English skills aren't strong
enough? Try implementing a bridge class! Learn how one adult school created a bridge class to
prepare English learners to be successful in their health care career classes. Step-by-step
program guidance is provided in this presentation.

Presenters:
Megan Brown, EL Civics Coordinator/ESL Teacher, Riverside Adult School, Riverside, California
Kathleen Bywater, Career Technical Education Coordinator, Riverside Adult School, Riverside,
California

Kathy Bywater accepted the Partners in Adult Education Excellence award on behalf her program, Riverside Adult School and Air Force Village West Skilled Nursing Facility.

Michael Lewis co-presented in:

Sensory Processing in the Modern Classroom
What do your students physiologically experience during near-point work? Learn to recognize a
sensory processing problem. Feel your dominant sense override all others in this hands-on
workshop. Pair off to practice screening and sensory development activities. One in four have a
hidden processing problem. Is this a factor for your learners?

Michael Lewis co-presenting, while Frances Frazier and David Doneff are in audience

Presenter: Leslie Peters, Author/Producer, Sensory Processing - Video Courses for Online
Learning, sensoryprocessingcourses.com,

This was an exceptional professional development event, indeed!

TIMAC Socal Regional Meeting, April 15, 2011

2011-04-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

Instead of frantically finishing up our taxes on April 15th, we had a wonderfully relaxing TIMAC Socal Regional Meeting hosted by Liela Rosemberg at Culver City Adult School. Leila provided us with breakfast bagels at the beginning of the meeting which started at 10:00AM, and sandwiches and cookies for lunch!

In attendance were Leila Rosemberg, Jesse Gonzales, Michael Lewis, Sean Abajian, Ian Batstone, Susan Coulter and Blair Roy. Each person shared how their project plans were going.

Jesse has been helping his mentee create a Weebly website at http://delanoadult.weebly.com/. Jesse said he has seen his mentee’s confidence grow as they have worked together on this project. His mentee has learned how to add links, pictures, PowerPoint presentations and text for latest news and updates for students. The next stage is for Jesse’s mentee to teach another teacher how to create a Weebly web page.

Ian has been working with two mentees. They have been creating lesson plans for use in their computer lab based on EL Civics and ESL curriculum. The plan is to upload these newly created lessons to a Weebly web site. They are also planning to add their lesson plans to OTAN’s Lesson Plan Builder. (http://www.adultedlessons.org/)

Michael continues to make progress and great inroads with his vision project. He has created an informative wiki at http://moavisionprogram.wikispaces.com/ that highlights his project, introduces his mentees and some of the partipants. Michael has organized and documented his progress throughout the year with his wiki which he learned to create at the first TIMAC meeting in October 2010. Michael was invitied to present his project at COABE/CCAE in San Francisco.

Sean has been busy developing quizzes to use with his student’s “feature” cell phones to extend learning activities beyond the classroom. Sean presented his activities and ideas for how to use cell phones with adult ESL students at the Technology and Distance Learning Symposium this past February. Sean and his students will be featured in an OTAN video demonstrating the use of mobile devices to be added to the OTAN web site this summer. He is participating in a hyperlocal blog and posting videos on edtechsean’s You Tube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/edtechsean. He arranged to have Echo Park Film Center bring their mobile bus to the school to have the students create a digital storytelling project addressing the idea of what they want to see changed in the world. Sean is also working on his school’s website using WordPress.

The classroom had a computer with a projector so everyone was able to share their projects. It was a great meeting with lots of wonderful information shared, support offered for all, great hospitality and food!

TIMAC at CATESOL 2011, April 7-10 2011

2011-04-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

The Art and Passion of Language Teaching was the title of our event held at Long Beach Convention Center & the Hyatt Regency last week.

It was great to see many TIMACers. Despite the harsh financial times, many ESL teachers have found ways to attend this unique opportunity for professional growth and networking. We met in hallways and in sessions and chatted with each other about what each of us does in our day to day teaching, training and learning.

The following TIMACers were spotted:

And these TIMACers presented:

Cindy Wislofsky
Katalin Gyurindak + mentee (Abdel Belblidia)
Candace Lynch-Thompson + mentee (Natalya Dollar)
Blair Roy

Kristi Reyes kept very busy as a presenter and an outgoing Adult Level Chair. Next year, she will hold the position of Technology Enhanced Language Learning Interest Group Coordinator.
Susan Gaer (one of TIMAC founders and a Super Mentor forever) worked hard thorough the year as an AV/EV coordinator for the conference.

These were the presentations by TIMACers.

Extend Learning Beyond the Classroom
Eli Clarke, MiraCosta College
Kristi Reyes, MiraCosta College
Demonstration TELL
Friday, April 8, 10:00 - 10:45 am Convention Center 104A
Do your students have a passion for practicing English using computers? Learn how to use three free, simple-to-use websites for creating online exercises your students can use to review course content and practice many skills: listening, speaking, reading, vocabulary, and spelling

Adult Level Rap
Kristi Reyes, Adult Level Chair
Jack Bailey, Assistant Adult Level Chair
Saturday, April 9, 12:15 - 1:15 pm Hyatt Regency A
Join adult level colleagues in small group discussions related to best practices. Come to network, and share your art and passion for teaching. Hear an update on the Adult Education
Strategic Plan from California Department of Education representative Diane Hurley.

Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (TELLIG) Sponsored Worskhop:
Using Technology for the Art and Passion of Language Teaching
Branka Marceta, TELL-IG Coordinator; OTAN
Barry Bakin, LAUSD Division of Adult and Career Educations
Cindy Wislofsky, San Diego Community College District Continuing Education
David Sconduto, Glendale Community College
Friday, April 8, 4:00 - 4:45 pm Convention Center 102C
A panel of ESOL teachers will present information about integrating technology in language learning in the classroom and beyond. Topics covered will include using wikis to build
a collaborative website with students from another school or country using Google Docs to create worksheets and assignments and using online video in teaching.

Spice Up Your Teaching with Edmodo
Abdel-Illah Belblidia, Mt. San Antonio College
Katalin Gyurindak, Mt. San Antonio College
Demonstration A
Friday, April 8, 8:00 - 8:45 am Convention Center 102B
What is Edmodo? It is a secure social network website designed specifically for educators and students. It combines some features of Facebook and wikis. It is a simple but powerful tool that helps you communicate with your students by creating discussion forums, post documents,
videos, sound files, web links, and more.

Video Projects in Adult ESL
Candace Lynch-Thompson, North Orange County Community College District
Natalya Dollar, North Orange County Community College District
Workshop A
Saturday, April 9, 1:30 - 2:15 pm Convention Center 101B
An Intermediate Low ESL instructor and an Advanced ESL instructor in an adult education setting will walk participants through the process of video project learning by addressing
the project step-by-step. Project learning research will be presented and discussed. Participants will engage in ways to tailor video projects to current curricula.

Great job, TIMACers.!

Northern Regional Meeting for TIMAC, Cohort 7, Friday, April 1, 2011

2011-04-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

The northern group had a good meeting at Diane Wallis’ place in San Francisco. They met from
about 12:30 to 5:30, and started with Diane’s delicious moussaka for lunch. She truly puts
‘super’ in “super mentor’. :)

Participants talked about where they were with their projects - Sharon participated via Skype,
and Leif, Teresa and Frances were there in person.

This is what Sharon saw on her monitor as she Skyped into the meeting. Pretty cool!

Later, they watched a few final presentations from the Cohort 3 DVD and looked at the handout
for the 5-7 minute TIMAC Oral Presentation PPT slide description. Diane also showed them her
PPT presentation from 2003 and explained again about attaching extra sound, video, or photo
files to a flash drive. They then experimented with PPT. Diane showed Leif how to take a short
video with a digital camera and insert into a PPT slide and also how to insert a URL link or
hyperlink into a slide. Teresa helped Frances with some basic PPT stuff.

At the end, Diane showed them vocaroo and they discussed working on how to isolate the audio
and download it so it can be attached as an audio file without opening up into a separate vocaroo
window. Diane also offered Frances to use her ipod and italk recorder to make audio files. They
may meet again to work on that.

Overall, everyone seems to be doing well with their projects - Diane reiterated to her Cohort 7
group that they don’t need to worry about not having everything completed in terms of their
projects - that it will most likely be an ongoing project for them and their school and that they
can focus their presentations on what they have accomplished thus far and in the coming month.

Everyone enjoyed meeting at Diane’s home as it gave them the opportunity to stay longer and be
a bit more relaxed.

Cohort 7 Training - Day 3

2011-02-02T16:35:00.000-08:00

Teresa and Ian discussing their "Road Maps"

On Friday, January 21, 2011 TIMAC Cohort 7 participants attended Day 3 of TIMAC training in Sacramento.

The focus of Day 3 mentoring skills workshop was overcoming resistance as well as giving
effective feedback to mentees. Another topic covered was establishing evaluation tools to
document the progress and results of the technology integration projects undertaken this year.

During our face-to-face meeting that Friday, TIMAC participants finalized the articulation of
their project for this year and are ready to implement it in the next few months.

They will be given continued support by the support mentors and will meet with fellow TIMAC
participants in a regional meeting in March and online in April. In May they will present about
the project.

Mike enjoying sharing and learning in the lab

The technology skills workshop topic was Use of Audio in Adult Ed. In our December 2010 online meeting, it w as suggested that this was a topic of interest. We talked about Internet resources that already offer audio materials and tools applicable to adult education. Then we covered a few ways t o create one’s own audio files. Finally, we practiced using Google Voice – an emerging technology using Voice over the Internet Protocol (VOIP), speech-to-text and call
forwarding, among many ot her features – to create a tool that carries immense potential for
education.

In the introductory activity that day we identified a number of areas where TIMACers need
additional support:

Leif working on his project plan

Time management tips
Grant/funding sources
Downloading videos and using videos in lessons
Weebly user group – a few projects this year have as their goal to create a Web site, and Weebly.com offers free server space for their basic plan and is relatively easy to use. Those TIMACers who are using this tool will meet in online user groups to support each other.

During our Day 3 meeting we also discussed Cohort 7 members’ participation in upcoming
conferences. One more goal of TIMAC is to have current participants attend and present at an
adult education conference. The hope is that, if agencies have the funds available, they will
consider sending the TIMAC participant at least one of the upcoming conferences:

Technology and Distance Learning Symposium, February 25-26, 2011, Hacienda LaPuente Adult Education http://www.otan.us/tdlsymposium/
CUE, March 17-19, 2011, Palm Springs http://www.cue.org/conference
CATESOL 2011: The Art and Passion of Language Teaching, April 7-10, 2011, LongBeach, CA http://catesol2011.org/
COABE (Commission on Adult Basic Education) & CCAE (California Council for Adult Education) joint Conference, Literacy to Work, Adult Education for a Global Economy, April 16- 21, 2011, San Francisco http://www.ccaecoabe2011.com
CASAS Summer Institute, June 14-16, 2011 San Diego https://www.casas.org/si/

SoCal folks leaving for the airport

On Friday, May 13 2011, we’ll get together in Sacramento for the last time to hear the final
presentations by Cohort 7 TIMAC participants and their fellow Cohort 7 members.

more photos available on TIMAC's online photo album

Susan's Site Visit with Ian at Torrance Adult School

2010-12-18T06:55:00.000-08:00

I was delighted to visit Ian Batstone at Torrance Adult School. Ian showed me his huge ESL classroom. Every ESL classroom is equipped with a computer, ceiling mounted LCD projector, and a document camera.

Ian introduced me to his ESL Resource Teacher, Portia LaFerla. I heard she is the one behind technology integration at the school. She makes things happen. It was also Portia who convinced Ian to apply to TIMAC, and we’re glad she did.

Next we visited the school’s computer lab. The ESL classes are scheduled to use the lab once a week. Ian’s class is scheduled every Wednesday, however, he has found ways to use the lab a couple of times a week. While we were in the lab, Ian introduced me to his director, Dr. Wayne Diulio, who shared some innovative ideas he has for the adult school. He sees the need for technology integration, and he fully supports Ian and his TIMAC project.

Ian then introduced me to Meredith his mentee. She had been having a slight problem with her document camera, and Ian, a true TIMAC mentor, stepped in to help her. They shared their ideas for their project. They want to create a Web site that would serve as a repository for EL Civics resources for teachers. They also talked about creating a Web site for ESL students. They have some great ideas and are excited to get started.

Blair's Site Visit with Sean at Jefferson Adult School

2010-12-03T13:50:00.000-08:00

I recently had to pleasure of visiting Sean Abajian in South Los Angeles at Jefferson Adult School. The school was bustling with students of all ages as the daytime high school students were departing and the night adult students were arriving for their classes.

On the way to Sean’s office, he introduced me to his principal, Ann Reed, who praised Sean for all of his hard work. Ann is very enthusiastic that Sean is part of the TIMAC program. Sean then took me to his office where he fills his role as a part-time teacher advisor.

His enthusiasm was immediately felt as he started showing me all of his TIMAC projects! Sean has a variety of projects he is working on. He is creating a school website using WordPress, enhancing the site by incorporating Scribd and SlideShare. He is using tinyurl.com and bit.ly to create calendars for the community, teachers and students. He showed me the informational fliers with maps and pictures of class locations that he has created to distribute throughout the community. He plans to have a workshop to teach fellow teachers how to create fliers for their classes. He is also working with EPFC (Echo Park Film Center) Filmmobile to host a workshop to engage students in creating digital stories. To finish up our visit, Sean showed me his classroom and demonstrated some of the exciting ways he is using cell phones to teach his students. It was an informative and exciting visit with Sean.

Susan's Site Visit with Susan at Pasadena City College

2010-11-27T13:36:00.000-08:00

Dr. Susan Briggs arranged a meeting with her mentees. There she introduced me to Allison, Veronik, Shannon, Jeff and Rachel. Bonnie, another mentee, was not able to attend. They are all ESL teachers. They shared their experience with technology in the classroom and discussed the TIMAC project. Susan will be assisting her six mentees in BlackBoard course development. The goal is for each mentee to develop their own BlackBoard course to supplement classroom instruction. They shared different ideas about BlackBoard and how they could use it to enhance instruction. Susan has a great group of mentees who are supportive of one another and seem to work well together as a collaborative learning community.

After the meeting, Susan gave me a grand tour of her campus. Our first stop was to the ESL Computer Lab followed by a visit to the beautiful quad area. We then visited a large computer lab during an ESL classroom visit. Pasadena City College has a Teacher Resource Room which includes computers, workspace and resources. Currently, the room is not used very much, but Susan hopes to increase teachers' use of the room. We visited one more computer lab where the teacher was preparing for CASAS testing. Our final mission was to find a Smart Cart. Since it is moved from classroom to classroom, it took some time to find. It was an enjoyable afternoon, and I not only got to see the campus but got to meet her mentees, too.

Susan's Site Visit with Laura at Conejo Valley Adult School

2010-11-25T17:13:00.000-08:00

Laura Cifuentes gave me a grand tour of her school. We started in the Computer lab, where she needed to coordinate the day's eCASAS testing and help get students started. There I met one of her mentees, Christine Schweers, who teaches ESL Beginning High, reading and grammar. I then visited Laura's classroom. They were installing a new air conditioning system, but Laura was able to show me her SmartBoard. She explained that every ESL classroom has a SmartBoard, document camera, and scanner, which they are very excited about.

The ESL Department has formed a professional learning community which meets every month. As a result of their meetings, they have identified the need for additional training on the SmartBoards. Blair Roy will be doing the training early in December, and teachers are excited about learning more.

We then visited the classroom of Karie Lynch, who teaches ESL Beginning Low, GED, and Social Studies. Karie is also one of Laura's mentees. Laura's TIMAC project is to help Christine and Karie set up class Web Sites for their classes. They will be meeting soon to research various Web hosting sites. Laura introduced me to Bette Empol, her ESL Coordinator, who is very supportive of her TIMAC project.

Diane's Site Visit with Leif at Martinez Adult School

2010-11-22T14:23:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Today I had the pleasure of visiting Leif Williams at Martinez Adult School, where he has been working for over ten years. Leif divides his time between teaching ESL classes and acting as the ESL Department Chair. The school is situated in the Alhambra Valley in Martinez, and it was a beautiful fall day with lovely trees turning different colors. Martinez Adult School has many different Adult Education programs in addition to the ESL program there. It is also part of the local high school.

Leif and I were able to spend some time talking about his project plan. He is going to work with one mentee, Gretchen Lammers. Gretchen has worked at the school for over twenty years and until recently, was the acting Assistant Director of the school. Gretchen is now back in the classroom and has decided, after getting positive feedback from her students, that she would like to design a class website. She feels that it would be a potential way to help students stay in touch, network, keep up with class assignments, and provide a meeting place for students past and present. I spent some time with Leif and Gretchen talking about the possibilities of using Weebly and incorporating other tools and programs within one website. Gretchen was very enthusiastic about the project.

Later, Leif and I were able to look at his Project Plan and add a little information as well as getting more familiar with the other pages of the OTAN TIMAC site.

We also met with Leif's school director, Kathy Farwell. She was interested to hear more about the project plan and how that might lead to future teaching technology training at the school. All in all, it was a pleasant and productive site visit. Thanks Leif !

Here is a link to the photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/timacbyotan/DianeSSiteVisitToLeifWilliamsInMartinez#

Diane

Blair's Site Visit with Michael L. at Montgomery Adult School

2010-11-20T14:11:00.000-08:00

I had a great visit with Michael L. at Montgomery Adult School in the Sweetwater Union High School District in San Diego. Michael met me in his classroom where he teaches and works with his vision study participants. At first glance, it looks like a regular classroom but as he starting showing me around, I realized there was more than meets the eye. Michael showed me the laptop with the vision software that the participating students use as part of his project. There were several more computers set up and waiting to have software installed to expand the number of computers they can use for his special instruction.

Michael proudly showed me that he had his TIMAC binder with him, chocked full of important papers, and looking well worn as he takes it everywhere!

Michael has been putting his wiki training that he learned at TIMAC to fast use by creating several wikis for his staff, mentees and students. He regularly updates his vision project wiki, MOAVisionProgram, to document his progress, provide valuable links and information for and about his mentees, and student testimonials.
He introduced me to Adriana Sanchez-Aldana, his administrator, who along with the Sweetwater Union High School District, has been supporting and encouraging Michael with his project. I also met one of his students, Laura, who was glowing with enthusiasm for her accomplishments and success after working with Michael and his vision plan. It was nice to see firsthand the result of Michael's work with one of his students.

Update on 02/07/2010

Hello Blair I want to inform you that I have been named "Teacher of the Year" at Montgomery Adult School. I want to thank you and the TIMAC program for all the training and motivation you have provided which was an integral part of my success this school year thus far. Michael

Diane's Site Visit with Frances at Petaluma Adult School

2010-11-15T21:28:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Today I had the pleasure of visiting Frances at her site, the Petaluma Adult School. Frances teaches an intermediate ESL class there four mornings a week. There are about 35 students in her class. Her classroom is in a portable classroom behind the McDowell Elementary School and so there is a lot of activity on the campus and in the classroom where Frances teaches. Her classroom also houses a program called Healthy Start and a parent education program called Avance.

Today I got to meet her principal, Carol Waxman, and discuss the goals for her TIMAC project, which will focus on helping teachers learn how to use and interface with the new document camera and projector that will be arriving later this week. We looked at the space in the room and considered the best place to put it and talked about the need to hook it up with a laptop computer as well. Frances is hoping to get an orientation to the new equipment from the technician who installs it and I'll do my best to find other sources of info. about how to use document cameras.

In addition to discussing goals for the coming year, we also got to meet with Vera Nichol, the Learning Center Coordinator at the school, who is responsible for IT at the site. She graciously gave up part of her lunch hour to come in and help us try to download Photo Story 3. We hope to have it installed and for Frances to get to experiment with that program soon. It's great that Vera is on site to assist with computer needs.

Next, Frances and I decided to go off-campus to a Starbucks with Wi Fi to continue our meeting since her classroom is in use starting at 2:00. At Starbucks, the first order of business was downloading Picasa onto Frances's Mac and showing her how to import photos from a camera and upload them to Picasa. In order to use Picasa, you need to have a gmail account so we signed Frances up for one and tomorrow she is going to help her class sign up for gmail accounts as well.

You can see our photos from today here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/timacbyotan/20101115FrancesFrazierSiteVisit#

After working a bit with iPhoto and Picasa, Frances decided to open a wiki account with pbwiki.com. Unfortunately, we ran out of time but we look forward to learning more about pbwiki and seeing how we can use it as a possible class website.

All in all, it was a fun afternoon and I look forward to learning more from Frances and seeing how she integrates the use of a document camera into her classes and what websites or wikis she develops. Thanks Frances !

Diane's Site Visits with Sharon at Fremont Adult School and Teresa at Overfelt Adult Center

2010-11-10T20:37:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone ! I had the pleasure to visit both Sharon Ram and Teresa Reen yesterday ! Sharon teaches at Fremont Adult School and I was able to observe her computer lab class from 12-1:15. She is doing great work in terms of having students at many different levels track what they are doing each day by keeping a record of scores of online exercises completed, as well as writing reports about News For You articles, creating resumes and many other activities. This is the best example I've seen of how to run an open-entry computer lab. She also has the students complete a weekly checklist of what they did and if completed, they receive a certificate at the end of the class ! I had the opportunity to meet her ESL coordinator, Yelena, who will also be one of her mentees, and her director, Brian. I'll try to add a few photos. We discussed her project, shared favorite new websites we've discovered, and she filled me in on the CUE conference in Napa. Thanks Sharon for a great visit !

Teresa is also doing amazing things at Overfelt Adult Center in East San Jose. She has about 8 mentees, I think, and will be starting her first training today going over how to use the DVD/VHS players, speakers and boom boxes that are in classrooms there. Later, she'll expand the focus to include using the computers, LCD projectors, document cameras and even Smart Boards. She has prepared some beautiful handouts to help teachers understand and remember the info. What is really impressive is that she has also included suggestions and examples for how to effectively integrate the technology into a lesson and has designed an assessment tool that she will give after each training that requires teachers to show how they will use this technology in a lesson. I also got to meet Teresa's director, which was a real pleasure. Teresa is working hard with the administration there to study how to offer professional development and technology integration and measure the results. I look forward to hearing about her results in May !

Blair's Site Visit with Michael Aaron at Beaumont Adult School

2010-11-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

Mike’s school is located in the small community of Beaumont with an active student population. On the afternoon I visited Mike, he was busy teaching his afternoon pronunciation class in the computer lab. His students were welcoming and graciously allowed me to sit in on the class. Between Mike’s passion for the subject and the student’s attentiveness, it was a very dynamic lesson. Mike demonstrated correct pronunciation and assessed each student’s performance as they wrote on small white boards mounted on the walls around the classroom. The students never tired of this activity and only agreed to quit when Mike paired them up on the computers to use Reading Horizons to reinforce what he had been demonstrating.

After Mike’s class, he took me to his classroom where he explained more about his TIMAC project. His projects are centered around using FreeOnlineSurveys to create online surveys for their EL Civics units and self-assessment, and helping the teachers implement Skills Tutor with their students in the computer lab.

Blair's Site Visit with Michelle at Montgomery Adult School

2010-11-05T14:33:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed my visit to Montgomery Adult School in San Deigo to visit Michelle Dullea greatly. Michelle met me in the parking lot with her great big smile. She gave me a brief tour of the campus, ending up in the classroom that is used for meetings and as the student computer lab. They have a cart of laptops with Internet access for student use. Michelle showed me one of the weather projects her ESL students had recently completed using Internet access to gather data. The students then used construction paper and colored pens to display collected information to complete their project.

Michelle introduced me to Mary Murphy-Clagett. Michelle and Mary will be working together in dual capacities; Michelle as Mary’s TIMAC mentor, and as OTAC (Online Teaching Academy) collaborators, as they are both part of that program. Michelle’s project involves creating a pilot program along with Mary for a "transitions" class preparing their students for the workforce, study skills, college prep, soft skills, and more.

Susan's Site Visit with Jesus at Delano Adult School

2010-11-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

Site Visit - Jesse Gonzales, director of Delano Adult School, gave me a grand tour of his school. He is very excited about the advances in technology occurring since he transfered to the school three years ago. He not only changed the exterior by painting all the building and planting numerous rose trees, but he changed the school culture by creating professional learning communities. Everywhere you look, you see their slogan, “Knowledge is the key to Success,” on the buildings, in the classrooms, and in their newsletter to students.When he arrived, he found three SmartBoards that nobody knew how to use. He quickly came up with a makeshift setup and got one operational. Now, all three are actively used by teachers and students.

Jesse is starting his TIMAC project by mentoring Mr. Hernandez on PowerPoint. He choose Mr. Hernandez, an ESL teacher, because of his work ethic and his desire to learn. They meet every two weeks to go over PowerPoint. Jesse gives him a little homework assignment on PowerPoint, but Mr. Hernandez always goes so far beyond what is asked of him. Once they are ready they are going to include other teachers. They hope that by December they will be looking at Weebly.com as a host for their Web site which they will use as a repository for their PowerPoints and Internet links. They are also talking about embedding videos sometime in the future.

I was very impressed with their ABE/ASE computer lab. They have 35 computers running A+ software, which includes ABE, high school credit recovery, and CAHSEE prep. They also have another computer room next door to handle the overflow. Students work hard to earn apples on the A+ program and compete against one another for highest time on task which Ms. Hernandez posts daily on the board. It sometimes gets down to the seconds.

They also have a large business lab with compartmentalized work areas. They use the far end for student orientations and eCASAS testing. A PowerPoint presentation about the school is shown to new students and then they are immediately tested on CASAS. Jesse says this has greatly improved their Data Integrity reports.

Delano Adult School is actively integrating technology in their classrooms and they hope their TIMAC project will propel them further into the 21st century.

You can also view this post on Susan's blog

TIMAC at CCAE South Coast/Southern Section Joint Conference: Mission Possible

2010-11-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

Hosted by Downey Adult School, this event brought toghether around 150 teachers, administrators and other adult ed staff. Debra Jones, State Director, Adult Education Office, gave an opening session, emphasing that our data does not reflect the good work with do and urging the CCAE members to give feedback on the new Strategic Plan and to volunteer to be on the implementation task-force.

Workshops included titles such as

ESL Transitions to Further Education and Workforce
Contextualizing Worksforce Skills in ABE/ASE Instruction
Using Moodle to Create a Course Web site
Startegies for Success: Developing Personal mission Statement
Supportive Learning Environments Improve Learener Persistence

TIMACers:
Josephine Majul dedicated a significant amount of her time helping organize this conference.
Wayne Miyahara received a CALCO award for dedication to adult education field.
Peggy Pinto attended and supported her fellow TIMACers.

Josie, Wayne and Branka - TIMACers catching up

During Luncheon Keynote, Mike Wada, current CCAE State President, among other topics, shared the news that the actor, Edward James Olmos, offered to express his support for adult ed by making a public announcement.

The conference committee, in dark glasses and agent suits, kept the theme of "Mission Possible" strong by having all the agents/participant pledge that they accept the mission.

From TIMAC

Cohort 7 Training - Days 1 & 2

2010-10-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

On October 14 & 15, our new Cohort 7 members met in at OTAN office for two full days of learning, sharing and networking.

Topics covered:

mentoring skills
possibilites in technology integration
theory about effective and meaningful technology integration
overall framework by Adult Education Office

TIMAC Alumni: Martha Rankin - Fall 2010 Update

2010-10-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a post from Martha to our community;

Hey Timac friends,

I am now a fourth grade teacher at Newport-Mesa USD. My kiddos and I started a writing blog. All of my kids are ELLs. The purpose is to get the kiddos inspired to write. If you have a chance, could you check out the blog...and maybe write them a comment. I'm trying to get them jazzed about writing and blogging!!!! How cool it would be to get comments from teachers up and down the state!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, friends.

Here's the writing blog URL: http://rankinwriting.wordpress.com/

Cohort 7

2010-09-29T17:15:00.000-07:00

A warm welcome to Cohort 7 participants in 2010-11.

Map of Cohort 7 Participants' Schools

Michael Aaron
Beaumont Adult School

Sean Abajian
LAUSD DACE, Jefferson Education & Career Center

Ian Batstone
Torrance Adult School

Susan Leilani Briggs
Pasadena City College

Laura Cifuentes
Conejo Valley Adult Education

Michelle Dullea
Sweetwater UHSD, Montgomery Adult School

Frances Frazier
Petaluma Adult School

Jesus Gonzalez
Delano Adult School

Michael Lewis
Sweetwater Union High School District, Adult Education

Sharon Ram
Fremont Adult School

Teresa Reen
East Side Adult Education Program

Leif Williams
Martinez Adult Education

Online Meetings 2010-11

2010-09-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendars.

Cohort 7 will attend five online meetings throughout the year.

Alumni will have the oportunity to share and network three times.

Coming soon: links to register for meetings

TIMAC Alumni: Tina Sander

2010-08-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

Tina Sander, TIMAC Super Mentor and Cohort 1 participant, also an ESL teacher from Santa Cruz Adult School, is getting ready to leave for Antarctica with an expedition that will offer opportunities for students to read her journal, interact with her, see videos, and participate in webinars. There will be opportunities for reading, writing and science activities appropriate for ESL, ABE and high school. Students can read Tina's journal and participate in webinars. Here is Tina's description of the project.

Hi Everyone,

I have something exciting to potentially bring a little light and excitement to you and your students' lives.

As some of you know I'm going to go on an expedition to Antarctica this fall. I'm actually leaving in a little over 1 month and I'll be joining a group of scientists, divers, and engineers as they dive and use an underwater robot to explore the seafloor communities under the ice. Our expedition website has lots more information for you.

I want to extend an opportunity to you to integrate this fascinating expedition into your classrooms in order to let your students get a glimpse of actual research in Antarctica as it is happening.

In brief, here is what you could do:

1 – You and your students can read my journals. You can discuss what we're doing and then post your best questions for us to answer on a forum. Jigsaw activities and all kinds of reading comprehension activities would work well for this.
I've already written about 20 journal entries that you can look through. Once I'm in the field, I'll be writing new ones about every other day about our expedition, Antarctica, and the people down there. (If you want, I can add you to my email list and you'll get the journal links sent to your email.)

2 – You can also tune in to webinars in which you'll see a presentation and have a chance to ask us questions. Though you won't get to see us in Antarctica, you will see pictures that we post and you will be able to talk to us! The dates for those are Wednesday, Oct. 20 (10-11 am), Wednesday, Nov. 17 (4:30-5:30 pm), and Friday, Dec. 3 (10-11 am). (If you are interested in those, email me and I'll keep you on a list for reminders and tech support.)

3 – You can participate in the WATER DROP program. Your students would print out, decorate, and laminate a simple template of a water drop. You would then mail it to us in Antarctica. I'll be collecting the WATER DROPs and I'll post pictures of them in various places in Antarctica. I'll also be giving the WATER DROPs to various people in Antarctica to "take to work for a day". They'll write about those adventures. Those stories will be in simpler English which would make them more suited for Low-Intermediate ESL classes (though I'm encouraging every class to send us one).

If you are interested please feel free to ask me questions at bsander (at) polartrec.com. I'm here until the middle of September and then I'll be heading down to the Ice.

http://iceaged2010.mlml.calstate.edu/

TIMAC Alumni: Martha Rankin

2010-06-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

In February, the Newport-Mesa School District – staring down a $13.5 million budget gap and more than 240 teacher positions at stake – anticipated dismantling much of its near $850,000 adult education program, leaving intact the high school diploma lab and GED programs next year. In the meantime, they re-instated a few ESL classes, too. You can read more about this at the adultedbudgetcuts wiki.

Martha Rankin, our Cohort 5 participant, is being re-assigned from adult ed to elementary.This e-mail message came in on Thursday, June 24, 2010:

My Friends,

Today is my last day as lead administrator at NMUSD Adult School. Today will also be our last day to “keep you posted” on our e-PLC blog http://adultedmatters.wordpress.com.

I have these simple but sincere words to share with my wonderful colleagues at NMUSD Adult School and throughout California Adult Education: Open Letter to our Community ~ Namaste

Namaste,

Martha

Some highlighted posts from 2009-10

Martha’s Year-End Madness Minimizer
Download Free Resources to Create Career Pathways and Postsecondary Transitions
Study at Home with FREE Printable GED Practice Tests!
“Babies are Such a Great Way to Start People” ~ Mandi’s Baby Shower
Helpful “Adult Learner Persistence” Website
Study English at Home this Summer with USA Learns
Free Family Literacy Resource Materials
Embracing a Blog! ~ Empowering a PLC!!
Four Year Attendance Trends ~ HSD Program
NMUSD Adult School ~ Working Together to Close the Achievement Gap
An Adult Education Newspaper for Social Justice
Spring 2010 CALPROgress ~ Alignment in Adult Education
Free Technology Integration Webinars from OTAN!
Transitioning Adult Learners to College
Goal Setting and Reflection ~ A Daily Practice
Advocating for Public Policy that Supports Adult Literacy
How to Administer WIA II Federal Programs in a High-Stakes Environment
ESL & ABE Class Evaluation Results
The Power (and Point) of Persistence
Things You Need…First 2 Weeks of Class!
SpellingCity + SMARTBoard = Seriously Simple
What the Data Says about our Managed Enrollment Program
Student Council Starts 01/27/10
“The Purpose of Education” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Virtual Workroom for Multilevel ESL Instructors
Site Council / WASC Work ~ December 16
Getting to Common Formative Assessments
Using CASAS as a Common Formative Assessment (SAY WHAT?)
Site Council Commits to Forward-Looking Mission
Digesting the Latest Info on CA Adult Education
Student Transfer Policy and Procedure
CASAS ~ Paired Scores & Average Gains are UP!
NMUSD Adult School Needs YOU!
Our NMUSD Adult School Attendance Policy
Reflecting on Our Mission and Beliefs
Individual Development Plan, 2009-2010
STEP Forward (Sub Teacher Essentials Packet)
Opening Up to Managed Enrollment
Emergency Preparedness, 2009
Office Assistant Certificate Program
Revised ESL Pacing Plans and Testing Calendar
New Managed Enrollment Plan for ESL Classes

Blog stats as of 06/24/10
Total views: 132,491
Posts: 441
Comments: 666

Martha Rankin
Lead Administrator
NMUSD Adult School
Our blog / e-PLC: http://adultedmatters.wordpress.com/
Our website: http://adulted.nmusd.us/
Costa Mesa, CA

Martha, Katlheen, Donna and Shin at TIMAC training in May 2009

Kathleen Slattery receives an Award at CATESOL 2010

2010-06-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

Another highlight of the conference was when Kathleen Slattery, Cohort 1 participant form Salinas Adult School, received Norma Shapiro Memorial Library Award during Adult Level Lunch Rap Session. The award was instituted by Jayme Adelson-Goldstein to honor Norma Shapiro’s memory by recognizing an adult ESL teacher who demonstrates excellence in classroom instruction, teacher training, and materials development. Here’s a video of Kathleen’s speech.

Big thank you to Page Endo, the Adult Level Chair for 2008-09. The incoming Adult Level Chair is our own Kristi Reyes from MiraCosta Community College, Cohort 2 participant.

TIMAC at CATESOL 2010

2010-05-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

Teaching and Learning in a Global Community, the theme of CATESOL’s 41^st Annual State Conference is particularly resonant with our adult education field as we are facing unprecedented budget cuts and program downsizing. Suddenly, many of us are found in a position to look for other employments and think of possible other ways to apply our skill and experience in teaching. Tapping into more global audience as our potential learners may just be the answer we are looking for. From April 22 to 25, 2010 in Santa Clara, a much smaller than usual number of attendees discussed ways to teach and lean in a global community. Here’s a list of what our TIMACers shared in their presentations:

Suzanne Ludlum, Oakland Adult & Career Education

Assessment Can Be Fun!

Suzanne Ludlum, Oakland Adult & Career Education

Demonstration A

9:45-10:30 a.m. Hyatt Cypress

Use handheld responders “clickers” to generate excitement and full-participation in class assessments. Receive immediate feedback about your students’ learning and track student outcomes.

Greening Our Classrooms and Healing Our Planet

Suzanne Ludlum, Oakland Adult & Career Education

Demonstration A

4:15-5:00 p.m. Convention Center 204

As we face global climate change and resource depletion – we will all have to be part of the solution to save our planet. Join the “Green Guerrilla Girl,” as she demonstrates how to integrate ecological principles and the 4Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot) into ESL/CBET classrooms

Suzanne also participated in the Electronic Village Software Fair. Here’s a video in which Suzanne talks about her student’s projects about recycling.

Kathleen Bywater, Riverside Adult School

Kathleen was the Coordinator for Nonnative Language Educators’ Issues (NNLEI) Interest Group in 2008/09.

Plumbing your own Depths as an Intercultural Educator: An Affair of the Heart

Lynne Diaz-Rico, CSU San Bernardino

Francisco Ramos, Loyola Marymount University

Megan Brown, Riverside Adult School

Workshop IC, E, S, A, CC, IEP, C/U, NNLEI

10:00-11:30 a.m. Grand Ballroom A

Explore your own complexities as you learn about and share experiences in a format that situates your growth as an educator in a framework of intercultural development. Bring a friend or make a friend as you acquire a toolkit of intercultural communication skills in an ambience of humor, honesty, and humility.

Intercultural Communication: What does it mean to you? How do you use it?

Kathleen Bywater, ICIG Co-Coordinator

Francisco Ramos, ICIG Co-Coordinator

4:00-4:45 p.m. Grand Ballroom E

What does “intercultural communication” mean? This presentation, by the co-coordinators of the Intercultural Communication Interest Group, will revolve around the meaning of the two words from which the group takes its name. Definitions by renowned authors in the field, as well as those from members of the interest group will be shared with attendees.

Francisca Wentworth, Jefferson Adult School

Electronic Village Internet Fair

Francisca Wentworth, Organizer

Fair TELL

Friday, 10:00 – 11:30 am

Convention Center Great America Ballroom J

The Internet Fair features educators who use particular websites for language learning and teaching. They will use the presenter station and address the whole group in the room. The presenters each have 10 to 20 minutes to demonstrate their material. Presentations are informal and conducive to questions and answers. Handouts are provided.

Using Technology to Enhance Teaching and Learning in a Global Community

Marsha Chan, Mission College; Sunburst Media

Susan Gaer, Santa Ana College

Jose Lopez Mercedes, TELL IG Coordinator; Santa Ana College

Branka Marceta, TELL IG Webmaster; OTAN

Francisca Wentworth, Jefferson Adult Education

4:00-4:45 p.m. Grand Ballroom H

A panel of English teachers will present information about integrating the latest technology into the language-learning classroom. Participants will learn how to use mobile technologies, social networks, online videos, and other online tools to enhance teaching and learning in a global community.

Create Dynamic and Interactive Lessons Using a Smart Board

Francisca Wentworth, Jefferson Adult Division

James Wu, San Mateo Adult School

Workshop TELL

8:00-9:30 a.m. Great America Ballroom J

Many schools have Smart Boards but teachers have not received proper training in how to use them effectively. In this workshop, participants will see how to create lessons from materials they already have.

Susan Gaer and Kristi Reyes (who had just had a baby a week before) participated virtually trough Skype and Adobe Connect.

Also spotted were Rebecca D’Harlingue of Castro Valley Adult School and Annie Cho of The English Center.

TIMAC Alumni: Myrna Montenegro

2010-04-29T17:06:00.000-07:00

During her online end-of-project presentation in May 2009 Myrna Montenegro, Cohort 4 participant teaching at that time at North Hollywood Polytechnic Community Adult School with LAUSC DACE, announced that she would be involved in a distance learning project where she was going to teach ESL to learners outside of US. Then she moved on to start her own consulting business. In her own words:

The "El Salvador Project" was set up and ran successfully, but had a short life due to ongoing internet~connection problems, being that it is located in a rural village away from any city.~ The project had 56 students with a smaller group still now showing up to the small lab on a regular basis to practice computer skills.

Now... I have begun a start-up business, "myWebEd", made up of a team of five consultants (including myself as CEO) and a pool of consultants as needed.~ We offer a list of services including:

Multimedia Web Design and Development

System Development / DataBase Expertise

Networking / Tech Support

Distance Learning: Web /On Site

Courses / Workshops: Web / On Site

Training: Web / On Site

Today, we are working on 6 websites for individuals and beginning a Pilot On Site Distance Learning Program and ESL Course for a Volunteers of America Head Start Program in North Hollywood.~ It is for the parents of the children attending. They plan to use this Pilot as a model to then implement the same at their other centers/agencies.

Go Myrna!

We are looking forward to updates.

TIMAC Application is Open for 2010/11

2010-03-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

Even though our adult education environment is uncertain at the moment, we need to continue our efforts to develop and support quality teaching in the adult education system. TIMAC has been a professional development opportunity that brings together teacher skills development, peer mentoring and technology integration in one, with the ultimate goal of improving learner outcomes. The experience for the new Cohort 7 will be different because there won't be a previous group to share the training with. We'll keep you posted about how it develops. Here's a wordle made from the pages on TIMAC official Web site, Home, About, and Application pages.

made on wordle.net

TIMAC Alumni Meetings 09/10

2010-01-11T17:16:00.001-08:00

In May 2009 (as in previous years, too) we discussed possibilities of staying in touch, and we decided to try to organize a number of online meetings where we would informally share our successes and challenges in technology integration. There will also be a technology integration topic of interest set for each meeting. These are the dates of the meetings:

Friday, January 29, 3-4 pm

Wednesday, March 31, 10-11 am

Wednesday, March 31, 4-5 pm

Friday, April 30, 10-11 am

Friday, April 30, 2-3 pm

Friday, May 21, 4-5 pm

Branka will send out reminders and instructions on how to join a week before each meeting. we are looking forward to our sharing and learning together.

Update: You can read summaries of the meetings at http://timac.wikispaces.com/Alumni+online+meetings+09-10

April Oliver Receives the Innovative Use of Technology in Education Award

2009-07-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

April Oliver, a Cohort 2 member, has received the Innovative Use of Technology in Education award from the Academic Senate of Santa Rosa Junior College. April was nominated for this award because of her work as Technology Coordinator in developing the technology plan for the non-credit ESL Department, developing curriculum, and mentoring her colleagues.

Her nomination form states that "April has developed new curriculum that empowers all ESL students—from the lowest literacy levels of non-credit ESL through credit level students—to use technology in their academic, vocational and personal life. She has designed and implemented innovative, yet step-by-step lessons that teach everything from basic computer vocabulary to Power Point and EXCEL—and her willingness to mentor others in this process has truly transformed the non-credit ESL faculty’s level of confidence and competence to integrate computer assisted instruction and language learning."

TIMAC at CASAS Summer Institute 2009

2009-06-26T14:59:00.000-07:00

Even though attendance was down from 700 to 500 participants (with increased numbers of out-of-state CASAS-using adult educators), TIMAC had a presence in San Diego from June 22-25. Vicki Jones from Simi Valley Adult School and Career Institute did a series of a workshops on CASAS e-test implementation with a panel of presenters. Susan Coulter Baldwin Park ACE, for the fourth year in a row, presented a workshop on using Excel to create student activities. Also spotted were Teresita Marchisello from Watsonville-Aptos AS, Michael Barnes from Mary Lind Recovery Centers and April Oliver from Santa Rosa Community College. Go TIMAC!

In Memoriam: Tom Elwood

2009-06-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

Tom Elwood, Cohort 2 participant, passed away on May 28th, 2009 (Visalia Times Obituary).

At the age of 71, Tom had just started his retirement, when he got a stroke. He briefly recovered from it, but succumbed on May 28th.

In our TIMAC community Tom will be remembered as one of the most effective presenters when, in his end-of-year reports, he so poignantly described the poverty rate of the population that Tulare Adult Education School serves. Here's a link to video of Tom's presentation from May 2006.

During his two-year engagement in TIMAC, Tom has helped his fellow-teachers bring in more computers and educational software into their classrooms. He also participated in Pixley Connect a project of the Great Valley Center in partnership with the AT&T Foundation and Tulare Adult School, which has been described as an effort to narrow the digital divide in rural California. The Pixley Connect project brings telecommunication access, education and training to the underserved, predominantly Spanish-speaking community of Pixley, located in the Central Valley of California.

OTAN produced a video containing the interviews with the adult learners in this community, their teachers, and the representatives of all the organizations involved in this innovative and promising program. The video also documents the graduation ceremony of the first generation of graduates from Pixley Connect. Tom Elwood and his family helped OTAN organize and shoot the video.

Tom will be missed by his TIMAC community.

TIMAC Report Days on May 7 & 8 2009

2009-05-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

There was a mixture of excitement and sadness woven into these two days. We were happy to see each other in person and hear what fruit our technology integration projects have born (to borrow the gardening metaphor Cindy Wislofsky used in her presentation). On the other hand, we were all sad because it was the end of our official training for both Cohorts. Everything you'd like to know about these two days from descriptions of projects, to Marian's intro and summary of the year, to two hands-on workshops on Open Source Software for Educators and Google Goodies, to photos, to (even) food recipes is on our wikispace page for May 09.

Thank you to Shin for taking photos, even when she did not feel like it, because we have a great gallery of the events from the two days.

As we all agreed, this is not the end. It's just the beginning of collaborations and sharing amongst the 75+ members of this community. Next year, we'll meet online in a series of open format online meetings to share what we are excited about, our challenges and our successes.

TIMAC at CCAE 2009, May 1-2 2009

2009-05-05T12:06:00.000-07:00

This year's theme 'Adult Education...Changing Lives Every Day...' should really become our slogan statewide as we try to educate the public about the importance of what happens in our schools and programs.

Despite the hard times, TIMAC had presence at this event. Mia Reed and Donna Edwards-Brown together with Branka Marceta, presented a panel titled, Teachers as Technology Mentors. Mia talked about the fact that Downey Adult School is on Twitter and Facebook and that they are creating a protected wiki for teachers's use only to be able to access from home all their documents and files that are currently only accessible on the school network. Donna talked about her two mentees and the blogs and wikis they created.(Donna's blog, Joann C's blog, Penny G's blog)

Martha Rankin's presentation, titled PLC 2.0 on a Budget had the following description:

How to sustain a PLC during tight budget times? Learn how one innovative adult school builds its PLC using Web 2.0 tools and outside-the-box solutions. Come away with ideas you can implement today and a renewed fire about the transformative power of the PLC.

She talked about their school's blog, Adult Ed Matters, that is emerging as a model of best practices for adult ed administrators throughout California.

Last, but not least, Alison Vinande, TIMAC mentee for Kathy Bywater, and Technology Mentor at Riverside Adult School gave a presentation about Simple Ways to Integrate Technology in ESL Classes. She talked about thier use of interactive whiteboards, using powerpoint in EL Civics assessment and creating Web pages so that teachers can post their favorite links.
Here's a direct link to Alison's presentation - http://www.schoolrack.com/avinande/

TIMAC at CATESOL 2009

2009-04-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

It was heartwarming to see so many TIMACers during 40th CATESOL State Conference in Pasadena, April 16-19, 2009.
Here’s the long list of who attended and what various roles they took on:

Super Mentors:

Susan Gaer – Electronic Village Coordinator, Presenter
Marian Thacher, Distance Learning Fair Organizer, Presenter
Ryan de la Vega (also Cohort 1) – EV Internet Fair Organizer
Francisca Wentworth (also Cohort 1) – EV Internet Fair Organizer, Presenter
Diana Batista (also Cohort 1)
Tina Sander (also Cohort 1) – Presenter
Penny Pearson (also Cohort 2) – Presenter
Branka Marceta – Presenter

Cohort 1:

Jim Brice - Presenter, TELL-IG listserv moderator

Cohort 2:

Kristi Reyes – Presenter, CATESOL Adult Level Chair 09/10
Josie Majul – Participant

Cohort 3:

Tatiana Roganova – Presenter, TELL-IG Coordinator 08/09

Cohort 4:

Shin Song – EV Software Fair Organizer, Presenter
Katalin Gyurindak – EV Software Fair Organizer, Presenter
Martha Robles – EV Software Fair Presenter
Suzanne Ludlum - – EV Software Fair Presenter, Presenter
Bethany Rich - CATESOL Secretary 2009/10
Cindy Wislofsky - Presenter

Cohort 5:

Annie Cho - Participant
Kathleen Bywater – Presenter
Candace Lynch-Thompson - Participant
Vicki Jones - Participant

And here are the presentations they offered:

Suzanne Ludlum, Oakland Adult & Career Education

Greening Our Classrooms – Yes We Can!
As we face climate change and resource depletion, we will all have to be part of the solution to save our planet. Join the “Green Guerrilla Girl,” as she demonstrates how to integrate ecological principles and the 4Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot) into ESL/CBET classrooms.

Know What Your Students Know
Use handheld responders to generate excitement and full participation in class surveys and assessments. Receive immediate feedback about your students’ learning.

Hollywood – Here We Come!
Learn how to use Windows Movie Maker to adapt movies from Discovery Education Streaming or other streaming source to align with your students’ ESL/ELD level.

Jim Brice, San Diego Community College District

Into, Through, and Beyond the ESL Computer Lab
Participants will learn how to prepare themselves and their students for a successful visit to an ESL computer lab. The presenter will demonstrate how to integrate popular ESL software, web sites, and student-made projects, such as web quests, into traditional ESL units. This presentation is especially designed for teachers new to computer assisted language learning.

Cindy Wislofsky, San Diego Community College District
with Marian Thacher

OTAN Online Resources for Teachers
OTAN’s website offers many free resources for adult ESL teachers. A collection of reviewed websites for students, online lesson plans, student success stories, videos of teachers using technology in the classroom, and information on distance learning

with Donna Price, San Diego Community College District

Time-Saving Tips for Word 03/07 and the Internet
Have you ever wanted to make lines on a student worksheet, but don’t want to spend 15 minutes doing it? Change a sentence to all caps without retyping it? Find a synonym and replace it easily? This hands-on workshop will provide you with over 35 keyboard shortcuts for the PC.

Marian Thacher, OTAN, Organizer

Electronic Village Distance Learning Fair
The Distance Learning Fair is an event for teachers to share how they are teaching ESL online or in a blended model, combining face-to-face and online instruction, and to share online tools for communicating, networking, writing, sharing photos, and other applications they find useful.

Kathleen Bywater, Riverside Adult School
with CSU San Bernadino with a panel of presenters

Seizing the Middle Ground: Cultural Accommodation Dialogues that Resist Assimilation
Newcomers to America often feel that they are asked to leave their cultural values at the door in order to assimilate, rather than learn to help hosts to accommodate to them. Participants will receive a toolkit of topic-related group conversations and dialogues that foster intercultural communication between teacher/student and student/student.

Tina Sander, Santa Cruz AS and Cabrillo College
with ALTA; ELT Publishing

Out and About in the World of Computers
How can you effectively integrate computers into your curriculum to further your students’ computer skills while improving their English? With Out and About in the World of Computers!, the author will demonstrate strategies for implementing many of the book’s computer-based activities that any teacher can do with beginning to intermediate adults.

Francisca Wentworth, Jefferson Adult School and Ryan de la Vega, Long Beach School for Adults, Organizers

Electronic Village Internet Fair
The Internet Fair features educators who use particular websites for language learning and teaching. They will use the presenter station and address the whole group in the room. The presenters each have 10 to 20 minutes to demonstrate their material. Presentations are informal and conducive to questions and answers. Handouts are provided.

Shin Song, North Orange County CCD, and Katalin Gyurindak, Mt. San Antonio CC Organizers

Electronic Village Software Fair
The Software Fair is an event for teachers to share how they use different types of software – in innovative, clever, and efficient ways – in English instruction or assessment during in-class or out-of-class activities. Teachers demonstrate how they have used educational, productivity, and open-source software.

Shin Song, North Orange County CCD, and Katalin Gyurindak, Mt. San Antonio CC

Open Source Software for Education
In this intorduction and demonstration about Open Source (free) programs for education, participans will learn about OpenOffice (instead of MS Office), Audacity (for audio editing and creating podcasts), GIMP (instead of photoshop), and walk away with great lesson ideas and fee Open Source software program CD. (link to Web site)

Kristi Reyes, MiraCosta College
with Elizabeth Clark and Ruth Gay, , MiraCosta College; and Beth Bogage, San Diego Community College

20 Web2.0 Tools for Student LiteracyProjects
Blogs, podcasts, and wikis are Web 2.0 tools that can be used by instructors to create an online presence for their classes, but students can use these tools, too. If you are already familiar with these Internet resources, come to learn about sites for making blogs, online books, slideshows, interactive timelines, Voice Threads, and mash-ups. Participants will receive a handout with Web sites, descriptions, and instructor or student examples.

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by reyesk

Web Tools Tech-Loving Teachers Can’t Live Without
Web 2.0 sites provide tools for instructors to add an online presence to their courses and for students to practice their language skills through enjoyable, creative projects. Teachers and students can share and collaborate on a worldwide forum. Participants will see samples and learn how to use three sites.

Digital Storytelling: Projects That Engage the Whole Learner
Digital stories are motivational multi-media projects that give students opportunities to creatively document their life stories while practicing their skills in writing and speaking, visual and media literacy, and technology. Learn about the process of creating and evaluating digital stories with handson practice and detailed handouts.

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by reyesk

Using Videos in PowerPoint
Proliferation of video-sharing Web sites and today’s advanced technology make it possible for teachers to access video clips more quickly and easily than ever before. Whether used to illustrate points, spark discussions, or create new student projects, these multimedia pieces breathe new energy into classes. Participants in this workshop will identify sources of videos appropriate for educational purposes. They will download, re-format and edit a video clip and insert it into a PowerPoint presentation. (link to Web site)

Tatiana Roganova, Hayward Adult School; TELLIG Coordinator 0809
with a panel

Technology Enhanced Language Learning Interest Group Networking and Business Meeting

Technology Enhanced Language Learning Interest Group (TELL?IG) Featured Session:
Using Technology to Encourage Holistic Learner Growth: Blogs vs. Wikis
The Technology?Enhanced Language Learning Interest Group hosts a panel to report on the use of technology that helps to recognize both learners and teachers as multifaceted individuals and addresses their totality. The panel will discuss the usage of blogs and wikis used as powerful tools to nurture holistic learner growth.

Penny Pearson, OTAN

Connecting Through Picasa
"The times, they are a-changing..." Those words are more true than ever in the past. Economic downturn typically brings more students into our classrooms but, more often than not, students are looking for an alternative: Providing ONLINE training is becoming a viable, and effective means to delivering instruction. Spend a few minutes learning a bit about Picasa (an online photo sharing and editing site) as well as Adobe Connect (a web conferencing tool). It is a "two-for-one" workshop (link to Web site)

Wow! What a line-up that was.

And, as usual, we enjoyed the time to socialize by spending every evening together and sharing.

Bragging Rights at COABE

2009-04-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

I'm preparing for a presentation at the COABE national conference in Louisville, called A Mentoring Model for Professional Development, in which I will talk about the history and results of TIMAC, and show some of your projects, your videos, and the many resources on the TIMAC Web site.

As I'm working on this, I just want to say how proud I am of all of you who participate in TIMAC, and of the excellent results you have achieved with your own skills, your mentees, and the students who are affected by all of you. You have an infectious enthusiasm for learning new things, and I hope I can convey even half of it to people from other states who will be curious about what we're doing here in California.

If you have any suggestions for what to include, leave me a comment here, or email me, and just keep on doing what you do!

TIMAC Regional Meeting in Santa Clara on March 27

2009-03-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

It was a very lively and successful meeting at Santa Clara Adult Ed.

Brian Darby, Santa Clara Adult Ed, shared some educational applications he made in Flash. He talked about his Adults With Disabilities learners and their program in general.

Hongyan Zheng, Milpitas Adult Ed, talked about

SchoolLoop - they already moved their school Web site to this platform
Embedding Google Presentations, her students shared some recipes this way
She also shared a Template and Instructions for PowerPoint she uses for her students to keep track of their CASAS test scores

Sylvia Richards-Bullock, Merced Adult Ed, talked about

SchoolWires - they are moving their school Web site to this platform
Mimio Interactive
FreeRice.com

Teresita Marchisello, Watsonvile/Aptos Adult Ed, talked about

Their ESL school Blog
Surveying students in SurveyMonkey
Their director was elected to be on Watsonville's city council, a very useful position to have in these days of budget crunch.

Tina Sander, our super mentor from Santa Cruz Adult Ed, shared resources on creating effective PowerPoint presentations.

TIMAC Regional Meeting in Oakland on March 20

2009-03-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

Peter, Annie, Rebecca, Francisca and Branka shared tips and tricks. One of them was how to do a 'phone-in podcast' by using Gcast. Here's an example. (Click on the word POSTS in the green square bellow, than click on the line Regional Meeting in Oakland)

Subscribe Free Add to my Page

As we mentioned in our phone-in podcast, these are some of the cool techie tools we shared with each other.

WASC Accreditation Plus -fee based social networking software to help schools prepare for the visit

Online videos

ESL video - embed videos from other services and create quizzes
Monkeysee and Videojug - experts talk about various topics
TED - for teachers personal enrichment

Enhancements to embed into your blog, wiki, or Web site

Have your students practice writing and conversation -G-chat

Francisca Wentworth's Web site - a treasure trove of useful Web sites for ESL and EL Civics

Have your students do a phone-in podcast

Thank you all for sharing.

Regional Meeting - Mt. Diablo Adult Ed (North)

2009-03-20T11:36:00.000-07:00

[Note to bloggers: Remember to hit the "publish" button! I actually wrote this over a week ago!]
Branka and I had the great pleasure to meet with Kathleen Edel and Bethany Rich on Friday March 20th with our charming hostess Sally Peckingham at Mt. Diablo Adult Education, Loma Vista Adult Center in Concord. Branka, Kathleen, Bethany and I drove down together from the Sacramento/Elk Grove area and stopped at Luigi's Italian Delicatessen, on Sally's recommendation to pick up sandwiches for lunch. They do not have a web site (that I could find) so I linked you to Yelp - a review site for all things food. I won't bore you with details, but I will say it was worth the wait!

Over lunch we talked about the current budget situation and what impacts they knew of within their own programs. At that time information was sketchy at best and everyone maintained a positive attitude.

Kathleen updated everyone on Connie's progress using assistive technology for her personal use in the classroom. You will hear more about the specifics on Connie during Kathleen's May presentation. I don't want to give away any details, but I know everyone will be impressed with Connie! Kathleen is also working on using a Wiki for WASC collaboration and to support students in the ESL/GED/CTE and ASE programs.

Sally is also working with wikis. She showed us how to embed video and photo slideshows into PBWiki. To view other resources use these links:
PBwiki - http://pbwikimanual.pbwiki.com/EmbedGoogleDocs
Wikispaces - http://21ctools.wikispaces.com/Google+Presentations

Bethany is waiting for install and training on SmartBoards but needs to get the overhead projectors installed first! Hopefully that will happen soon so she can start working with her mentee on developing lesson plans. Branka shared two sites where adult educators can share their lessons for interactive whiteboards, based on the type they have:
SMARTBoard - http://drop.io/interactivewhiteboardlessonsincaadultedSMARTBoard
Promethean - http://drop.io/interactivewhiteboardlessonsincaadultedPROMETHEAN#

Other resources shared:
FreeRice at Http://www.freerice.com

All in all, it was a great meeting. If I missed anything we shared, please post it in a comment, or send me a note and I'll update this post.

TIMAC at CUE 2009

2009-03-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

Despite the hard times of uncertainty about the budget and future of our schools, some TIMACers were able to attend 41 annual CUE conference in Palm Springs, from March 5-7, 2009. These are the presentation offered by our group. We all joined CUE Community NING and posted our materials.

Intro and Demo to Open Source (Free) Software Programs for Educators!
Shin Song, Katalin Gyurindak,

Provide an introduction and demonstration of Open Source [free] programs for education. You will learn about OpenOffice (Instead of MS Office ), Audacity (for audio editing and creating podcasts), GIMP and Inkscape (Instead of Photoshop), and walk away with great lesson ideas and a free Open Source software program CD.

Easy Excel Activities for the Classroom: Bingo and Study Helpers
Susan Coulter, Suzanne Ludlum

Learn how to create Bingo games and interactive student worksheets in just a few minutes using your own course content. Participants will receive a CD with templates and step-by-step tutorials.

Here's a video clip of Susan presenting.

Technology Projects for ESL
Susan Gaer

Collaborative Internet projects can be done with ESL students! See successful projects and learn how you can create an interactive learning Internet project for your class.

Not a TIMAC member, but a well-know and active member of a wider Technology Mentor Network, Barry Bakin from LAUSD, DACE represented adult ed in a panel about the use of Web 2.0 organized by Steve Hargadon and offered a 3-hour pre-conference workshop.

In addition to presenting and attending presentations by others, we spent some time socializing and sharing with a larger group of adult education teachers. One of the highlights was taking the famous Aerial (rotating) Tram gaining 5,873 ft in elevation.

Justin Loh at CSIS

2009-03-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

Our TIMAC Cohort 4 member, Justin Loh from Shasta Adult Ed presented at California Consortium for Independent Study conference in Sacramento.

One of his presentations was Educating Online: Synthesizing the Latest in Available Technologies with Effective Instruction.

He described how his program uses Google Docs, Moodle and a digitized Math curriculum - to best meet the needs of their Independent Study students.

Here's his presentation

So Cal Regional Meeting on Feb 27 2009

2009-03-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

A group of over a dozen TIMACers from Cohort 4 & 5 met at Santa Ana School of Continuing Education for the March Regional meeting. Branka and Penny joined them from Sacramento via a video conference. We were particularly happy to see our alumni Mia Reed and Ryan de la Vega. Susan Gaer, the host, demonstrated how she uses Video Conferencing with her ABE students.

During the meeting they connected live with a teacher from Arkansas who told the group how her and Susan's students are meeting using this technology and working on a wiki collaboratively, while practicing their writing and reading skills. What is very fascinating aboout Angela Grenier, the English Teacher with Office of Distance Education at the Arkansas School of Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, University of Arkansas system. - is that every day she teaches students who are 200 miles away from her. Video-conferencing technology makes it possible for learners in remote, rural areas to get the best quality teachers available.

If you'd like to see video-conferencing class in action - view a video of a recorded session on ODE Web site Scroll all the way down to the end of the page. Click on "Best Practices in Distance Learning Programming" Then click on " Link to Observe Examples of Instruction at ODE"

Below is a slideshow of photos from the meeting. Thank you to Shin and Katalin who posted them on the TIMAC Picasa Web Album.

What were some other topics you discussed during the meeting? Please post your comments bellow.

TIMAC Alumni: Ronda Rafidi at CLASS, Fresno

2009-02-10T15:42:00.000-08:00

This came in an e-mail from Ronda on February 04, 2009

On a more positive note, I wanted to also tell you that my two years as the TIMAC technology mentor has taken on a life of it's own this year. My mentees are still hard at work using even more technology and mentoring each other as well as taking on new mentees of their own. They have taken the technology skills they learned for themselves and are using them for lesson planning and with students. For example, you should see the creative PowerPoints with video clips, pictures, etc. they are creating. This is coming from people who have never used the PowerPoint program before. I think we've created technology using monsters! I have you and TIMAC to thank for that.

10 000 Letter Project, OACE at the Capitol

2009-02-04T15:36:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of 2009 Suzanne Ludlum organized a letter writing campaign, titled 10 000 Letters Project, with the goal to inform and educate California legislators on the importance of adult education. Here’s the project description in as presented in the cover letter to the 3 000 letters a group of OACE learners and teachers brought to California Capitol on February 4 2009.

“In Oakland Adult and Career Education (OACE), thousands of students have heard that the California Legislature is considering a proposal that could divert funds away from Adult Education.

Fearing that such a proposal could dismantle the programs that help them better their lives and support their families and communities, students came together with their teachers to launch the 10,000 Letters Project. This ten-day campaign asked OACE students to reflect on why adult education classes are so important to them and how their classes have opened doors for them as parents, workers, and community members.

As of February 4, 2009 – students have generated a little over 3,000 letters – quite an accomplishment in such a short period.

Today we are bringing these letters directly to the State Capitol to ask our legislators NOT to include Adult Education among the categorical programs in the flexibility proposal now under consideration in the Legislature. This proposal presents a profound threat to the Adult Education delivery system here in California.

We understand the dramatic, unprecedented budget crisis we are now facing requires cuts in programs across the board. However, Adult Education students believe the classes they attend make a big difference in their children’s lives (thereby supporting the K-12 system).

Because of the vital importance of Adult Education programs to California’s low-income, literacy-challenged, and most vulnerable and disenfranchised communities, we are asking legislators to reject this flexibility proposal.”

These are quotes from the cover letter:

Adult Education in California has a long history (150 years) of serving our neediest families with parent education, workforce development, high school, diploma, GED preparation, ESL, citizenship, independent living programs for older and disabled adults, and other educational
programs. Where will they go?
— Suzanne Ludlum, 10,000 Letters Project Organizer

Adult Education students need to learn English for their future in this country.

It is important that older adults have these classes to keep us thinking and moving.

I am building my job skills in this class so I can return to the workforce again.

The group consisted of:

Osea Carmona, learner
Victoria Angel, learner
Maria Neria, learner
Erica Ramos, learner
Jordan Lancaster, learner
Pat Shoeder, teacher
Gaylynne Hudson, teacher
Suzanne Ludlum, teacher

Among the Legislature Members they visited were the office of senator Darrell Steinberg and Oakland’s 16th District Assemblymember, Sandre R. Swanson. They did not get to meet the first one, but in Swanson’s office they were greeted by Douglas Maclean, his Communications Director, who sat with the group for a long time and listened to their concerns.

And here are the group’s reactions after the visit to the Capitol.

Older adults are working longer and needing skills (for example, computer/tech skills). They need to stay healthy, thereby lowering health care costs. Adults with disabilities are learning daily living and job skills that support their living as independently as possible in the community.
— Patt Schroeder, OACE Adults with Disabilities Program

People have the choice to be considerate of the needs of the needy or not. “To be or not to be” has been replaced with “do we care or do we not care.” It’s ironic to live in a world filled with color, but where everything is seen only as black and white issues. At the end of the day, character decides our future. Do what is right!
— Jordon Lancaster, CNA Graduate 2009 (Edward Shands Adult School)

I was so impressed how eloquently my students expressed themselves today. They spoke from their hearts about how they want to help their children.
— Gaylynne Hudson, OACE CBET Program

Following are photos taken during that day:

Cohort 5 Training, Day 3

2009-01-27T15:02:00.000-08:00

On Friday, January 23, TIMAC Cohort 5 participant attended Day 3 of TIMAC training in Sacramento. TIMAC training focuses on 3 aspects of peer-to-peer professional development model: mentoring skills, technology integration skills, and technology skills. The goal is to support TIMAC participants in becoming a technology mentors at their schools, working with one or more colleagues/mentees to effectively integrate technology in their classes.

The focus of Day 3 mentoring skills workshop was overcoming resistance as well as giving effective feedback to mentees. Another topic covered was establishing evaluation tools to document the progress and results of the technology integration projects undertaken this year. That Friday, TIMAC Cohort 5 participants finalized the articulation of their projects for this year and are ready to implement it in the next few months. Cohort 5 will be given continued support by their support mentors and will meet with fellow TIMAC participants in a regional meeting in March and online in April as described in TIMAC Calendar.

The technology skills workshop topic was Wikis, Web pages that can be edited by anyone or a number of co-authors – depending on the settings. Wikis, alongside Blogs, are promising tools for collaboration and allowing teachers to easily establish online presence and extend their student’s learning beyond the classroom walls. During our two-hour session we performed some basic tasks such as adding text, links, images and embedding videos to a wiki page. We also compared two wiki services available to educators for free.

During our Day 3 meeting we also discussed Cohort 5 members’ participation in upcoming conferences. One more goal of TIMAC is to have current participants attend and present at an adult education conference. We have asked TIMAC administrators to consider sending their TIMAC participant to one or more of the upcoming conferences:

Technology and Distance Learning Symposium, February 17-19 2009, Sacramento County Office of Ed http://www.otan.us/tdlsymposium/

CUE, March 5-7, 2009, Palm Springs http://www.cue.org/conference/

CATESOL 2009: Whole Learner, Whole Teacher, April 16-19, 2009, Pasadena http://catesol2009.org/

CCAE State, April 30-May 2, 2009, Hilton Pasadena http://www.ccaestate.org/

CASAS Summer Institute, June 23-25, San Diego https://www.casas.org/si/

On Thursday, May 7 2009, we’ll get together in Sacramento again to hear the final presentations by Cohort 5. April online meeting and other correspondence and resources will offer more direction on how to deliver an effective presentation. For a list of TIMAC deliverables visit our wiki page.

Here are a few more notes after the meeting.

Tina Sander asked me to showcase Slide – photo sharing service that allows you to add music and animation to your photo collages. Check out examples on her wiki pages

http://tsander.wikispaces.com/
http://timac.pbwiki.com/Tina-Sander

Vicki Jones brought up an interesting point about downloading videos from You Tube and similar sites, when your district filter is blocking it. Here’s a resource page about this topic.

If you liked your experience during our afternoon workshop, here are links to more tutorials about wikis. Also consider taking OTAN’s online workshop about wikis.

Send info to Branka about any conference presentations you may have done this year: Title, Description, When and Where

To find resources with copyright-safe images, music, sounds and videos – visit our wiki page.

Thank you, Cohort 5, for being technology integration champions at your schools/agencies.

Site visit with Joanne Miller at West Contra Costa Adult Ed, Richmond

2009-01-06T17:15:00.000-08:00

On November 11, I visited Joanne Miller at West Contra Costa Adult Education Joanne teaches Computer Skills for the Business Office classes in the morning, and in the afternoon she is the accountability clerk for the whole program. That means supporting teachers with CASAS and other types of testing. In her morning class the adult learners were working on Excel and the specific skills of formatting a budget with number formats and the SUM formulas. After they watched Joanne demonstrate it from the presenter station with the help of an LCD projector, the learners worked individually to practice and perfect these particular skills. It was nice to see them help each other. Some sobering facts about the adult learners we work with in the Job Training/Workforce Preparation programs are that they need so much help with the most basic aspects of using a computer. For example, a few learners had difficulties saving files to their thumb drive because they did not understand the underlying tree-like architecture of computer parts. Thanks to teachers like Joanne, we are winning that battle one adult learner at a time. She dedicated some time after class to help a few learners by walking them through the process, step by step. (We see this phenomenon with many teachers, as well, when they don’t know where their downloaded files go. Penny Pearson, OTAN Project Specialist, developed a handout (link to handout) to address this issue. )

We spent the afternoon in Joanne’s office, discussing what her TIMAC project would be. Through the discussion with her administrators the project crystallized . Joanne would learn how to create a blog and train her director and program chairs how to use it. This would serve as a central place for information about school administrative topics such as testing and training, and amongst the teachers as a place for sharing lesson ideas and resources. Joanne dove in right away and over the next two hours she created a blog with a few posts, learned how upload a file and change the look of the blog overall. Along the way she brainstormed with me what the possible uses would be for this online tool. Here is what it looks like now. (link)

The most important was the fact that Joann got very excited about the possibilities, and this ‘infection factor’ (as Penny coined it) is one of the most powerful causes for overall agency change towards more technology integration, as has been reported by TIMAC participants, again and again.

Site visit with Annie Cho at The English Center, Oakland

2009-01-06T17:12:00.000-08:00

November 25 2008

During my visit to The English Center in Oakland, Annie Cho’s learners were self-directed while working on their resumes in her computer skills class. They had already spent a significant amount of time in the preceding days and weeks brainstorming and creating on the content of their resumes with their ESL teachers. Now was the time to put that in a formal, presentable format. Annie gave feedback and pointed out the minor formatting issues by both looking at their individual printed resumes, and by projecting up a sample resume on the screen to go over the most common mistakes with the whole group. There are no discipline issues or lack of interest in this group, as this task is one of the most important and relevant ones we do in our adult education classes. Resumes they create are the first step towards getting jobs that will help pay bills, feed the family and ultimately accomplishing the personal and professional goals they have. And Annie is there to help. She teaches MS Office occupations to adult learners in the program, and she helps other teachers complement with computer activities the topics covered in class. Their school wide EL Civics topic this month is Immigrant Rights and Annie ties her computer skills objectives to this topic. The next assignment is for the learners to apply what they know about PowerPoint and to create a slide show presenting three rights of their choice and related examples.

For her TIMAC project Annie will be conducting a needs assessment survey to best gauge what technology topics the teachers at The English Center see as important. Then she’ll design her training around it. Her personal area of interest is using wikis for teacher and student reference and collaboration and she has already established a few and is working in building them up. She has also set up a class blog and taught her learners hot to set up their own.

Site visit with Brian Darby at Educational Options, Santa Clara

2009-01-06T17:01:00.000-08:00

November 13 2008

Brian Darby’s class is not your typical adult education scene. His learners have mental and physical disabilities of varying degrees and spend every day of every week of the year with Brian, the other AWD teachers, teaching assistants and program staff at Educational Options, Santa Clara Adult Education. Some of Brian’s adult learners live in board and care facilities or with relatives. Some live in supported living settings or in residence hotels or apartments. They all want an improved quality of life afforded by the acquisition of life skills and knowledge that will enable them to live more independently, maintain healthy friendships and lifestyles and become more active citizens in their community. Some learners in Educational Options AWD program are job training at the school cafeteria.

When I entered Brian’s class around 11:00 in the morning, a You Tube video of Backstreet Boys was playing projected on the screen and the whole room was humming, singing along and moving to the rhythm. Everyone was energized and participating.

Then Brian moved on to his lesson using Google Maps Street View feature. He zoomed in on the map of the school surroundings and showed the streets and places of interest in the neighborhood. By engaging the learners with familiar sights Brian was able to work on their letter recognition, practice the school name and address, talk about bus routes the learners take to get to school and their favorite stores and food. By using the multimedia in his presentation, Brian was able to keep his learners’ attention for a longer time than he would by simply talking to them. In our conversation after class, Brian emphasized the importance of using visuals and music when working with learners with disabilities. He used the time we had together to educate me on many challenges adults with disabilities face ranging from basic life skills such as cooking and personal grooming, to acting independently within a community, to social interactions, and pursuing recreational activities. Despite the many odds against them, Brian stressed that most of his learners are very accomplished human beings – in comparison to those ‘non-disabled’ aspects of population with substance abuse and other socially unacceptable issues.

In the afternoon, learners engaged in planning a birthday party and going over next week’s activities. They used the electronic calendar projected onto the screen to do so. Some learners had laptops in front of them so that they can work independently. Others worked on the software programs installed on the desktop stations alongside the wall. One of their favorite Web sites is Starfall (phonics and reading).

Brian’s TIMAC project will be to train other teachers and instructional assistants to offer a similar lesson with Google Maps while covering many skills AWD need. Since not all the teachers have the access to the Internet, Brian’s plan is to develop a PowerPoint lesson using screenshots of maps. He will also be offering other tech support to teachers and aids at set times before and after their teaching hours of 10 to 3. In conversations with Brian’s coordinator, Annabel Tomacder-Ruiz, and the director of SCAE, Daniene Marciano, I learned that Brian is viewed as a tech guru, not only within AWD program, but agency-wide, and that they are all excited at the prospect of Brian sharing hit technology expertise with the colleagues.

Visits to Mary Lind Foundation and Newport Mesa

2008-12-12T20:42:00.000-08:00

Mary Lind Foundation
I visited Michael Barnes at the Royal Palms Recovery Center, which is one of three residential treatment centers for homeless recovering addicts. They have a computer lab in the building, and also several computers at each of the other centers. Residents can take a variety of classes in the lab, including computer skills and GED preparation. The instructors are provided by Belmont Adult School, part of LAUSD.

Michael is working with the computer skills teacher, Corinne, and their project will be to create an online community for their residents, with the hope that after leaving the program this will give people a way to stay in touch, and to let their teachers and counselors know how they’re doing. The students will help to create the site, and start using it as part of their computer class, and then will be familiar with it by the time they leave.

Newport Mesa Adult School
I met with Martha Rankin, the Assistant Principal, and Mandi Spottsville, ESL Instructor, both TIMAC participants. Martha has been a proponent of technology integration, and it was fun to see all the classrooms with SmartBoards installed and teachers using them. I also got to see some wonderful videos made by students in the video production class.

Martha started a blog for the school last year through which she shares program information, meeting agenda, assessment data, and planning documents. The goal of their project this year is for Mandi to take over the blog, post on it, and encourage the teachers to participate more in the blog as well. Martha will mentor Mandi on how to develop the blog. They have specific goals, like increasing the number of teacher tips posted, and adding podcasts and video.

Mandi will be working with a couple of mentees to organize the content on the blog and create a new Teacher Made Materials section. They will also be encouraging teachers to post their own tips rather than having them all come from Martha and Mandi.

Susan Gaer visiting Donna, Wayne, and Martha

2008-12-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

Here's a report from Susan

I went to see Donna at Evans Adult School on November 17. She is going to work with two teachers to develop a blog using Edublogger.

I went to see Wayne at El Monte and he is going to work with all his teachers to have them learn how to take attendance online.

I saw Martha at Cerritos College and she is going to work with two of her most computer phobic teachers and try and get them to use use Internet resources for their classes, take attendance and log on to their email.

Site Visit with Howard Adams, Bakersfield Adult School

2008-11-21T08:52:00.000-08:00

I had the good fortune to visit Howard at BAS on November 12th. After a looooong drive from Sacramento, I arrived at the Bakersfield Adult School around 1:45 pm. The first thing that struck me was the size of the campus. This place is HUGE! It took a bit of a hike to find Howard's ASE classroom, but once I found it we were able to continue with our visit. (I was enjoying watching the sheep graze in the field next to his classrooom buildings. How pastural!)

Bakersfield Adult School opened it's doors in 1917, serving the central valley for over 87 years. It is ranked as the 8th largest adult school in the state. The main campus is on 40 acres, shared with the district's Regional Occuption Center, and serves over 28,000 students. Additional sites include a campus downtown and classes offered the outlying communities of Arvin, Shafter, Kern Valley and over 50 other schools, community centers churches, and retirement centers.

Howard and I spent the better part of 2 hours talking about ideas for his project, identifying quality 'mentees' and what are the realistic expectations of his project. In my mind, one overarching message from me is "Keep It Simple." TIMAC members are traditionally a group of dedicated, visionary types that look far into the future and see things bright and shiny. But often the reality of time-constraints, budget cuts, even personal issues, reminds us to restructure the scope of our projects down to a managable and "doable" size.

As BAS completes their application for their Technology Plan, they are asking all their teachers to complete the Technology Skills Assessment. It is Howard's plan to use this data to identify 3 or 4 individuals who indicate they have low skills, but high need for specific technology training. The details of what those topics will be are not available until November 20th. It will take some time for Howard to analyze all the data, then approach those individuals who may want to participate as one of Howard's "mentees" for the rest of the academic school year.

Howard's enthusiasm and positive attitude toward technology will be a positive draw for anyone at his school site who is looking to improve their technology skills -- no matter what their interest may be. Keep up the great work Howard!

Training Days 1 & 2, October 9 & 10, 2008

2008-10-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, October 9 2008, Cohort 5 participants gathered for the first day of training at OTAN in Sacramento. This day focused on mentoring skills as Dr. Paul Porter held workshops on Mentoring Skills and SMART Goal Setting and Evaluation. Technology skills covered the first day included overview of Web 2.0 tools in the form of TIMAC blog, wiki and photo sharing. Another specific skill covered was the use of hyperlinking in Power Point to create Jeopardy-like activities to test learners understanding.

In the afternoon, Cohort 5 participants spent some time charting and drawing their road maps. [Follow the link to go to the Web photo album and see larger sizes].

On Friday, October 10 2008, Cohort 4 joined us for their second year of participation in TIMAC. Student Response Systems by Qwizdom were used as another way to implement evaluation of learner comprehension and skill attainment. Susan Gaer held a workshop for Cohort 4 titled Possibilities Fair, in which she presented projects such as learners exchanging Home Remedies and participating in Virtual Schools. Susan used the electronic whiteboard to show alphabetizing and matching activities. She showed examples of enhancing ESL lessons with PowerPoint. Finally - always on the lookout for new gadgets - Susan created a lot of buzz by introducing a mobility kit by Kingston that allows transfer of files from one’s cell phone to the computer to a portable audio player. The participants agreed that this offers many possibilities for the educational use of learners’ cell phones.
In another room, Cohort 5 tested a number of Web sites by creating projects and designing lesson plans around the tools offered – such as creating captioning and memory games with publicly shared photos, or using NPR’s This I Believe with ABE/GED and advanced ESL learners.
At the end of the day both groups met again in a workshop about Google Docs. They signed up for a Google account and practiced sharing online documents with each other. Everyone created a slide with text, photos, and even videos, to contribute to a joint online presentation.

Both Cohorts started their online project plans as they articulated what their technology integration mentoring project will be at their respective agencies. (This year 2 community based organizations, 4 community colleges, and 22 adult schools are taking part in TIMAC)

For more photos visit our online photo album.
For detailed info about our training visit our wiki.

Mia Reed's Great News - Sophia's Adoption is Final

2008-10-08T08:53:00.001-07:00

Mia Reed on Tuesday, October 07, 2008 at 8:18 PM-0700 wrote:

Dear Friends and Family,

Our sincerest thanks to everyone on our journey towards our family and the process of adopting our beautiful daughter Eva. Your prayers, support, tears and love held us up and gave us strength each day. Looking back on the last 8 years of infertility, our beautiful foster son Jesse that went back to his grandfather, and the many other trials and tribulations, all of the struggle was worth this very moment in time as our beautiful daughter is now ours. She's officially a "REED" today, and we couldn't be more happy and excited. In a few of the pictures on the web you can get a little glimpse of what The day was like. The thing that struck us the most was when the judge said, She now has all the rights as a natural born child." The moment I stood on the platform to shake the judge's hand, the emotion came over me like a wave. A wave of relief, no one can take her away. A wave of peace, she's our daughter now and she'll know no different. And a wave of gratitude, thanking God for this beautiful gift. We love you, thank you, and look forward to a long and beautiful life with our precious daughter, Eva Sophia Reed.

Click this link to check out more pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ciccanti1/AdoptionDay#

TIMAC Cohort 5 at ACSA 2008

2008-10-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

On September 24-26, 2008, Association of California School Administrators held a professional development workshop (conference) titled Adult Education: Adult Schools Matter. Every year adult education administrators meet to share best practices and learn about the latest initiatives and directions from Adult Education Office, CDE.

Our Cohort 5 member, Martha Rankin, administrator from Newport Mesa USD Adult Education, held a workshop about the blog she started and maintains with the purpose of supporting a professional learning community at their school.
Here's a description of Martha's workshop:
Adult Education Matters! Building Professional Learning Community in a Web 2.0 World

You have heard the buzz; you have read the research. Professional learning communities and site-based PD are “best practices’ for continuous improvement and professional learning. But, how do you create and sustain a professional learning community in and adult school, where teachers are separated by time, space and content? Come learn how an innovative adult school builds its learning community, integrating key component such as: the first-of-its-kind adult education PLC blog, peer mentors, and bimonthly tam meetings…all on a shoe-string budget. Come away with ideas you can implement today and a renewed fire about site-based PD and hot it can transform our 21st century adult ed world.

Needless to say, Martha's workshop was a hit as our photos show.

In Memoriam: Devon Markert

2008-09-22T15:53:00.000-07:00

On Friday, September 19th, around 11:30pm, TIMAC lost an amazing person, our Cohort 2 member and 0607 Super Mentor, Devon Markert. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor in March 2007 and has undergone numerous operations and therapies. At the beginning of this school year Devon went back to work at Torrance Adult School as a curriculum developer. We have all been very hopeful that she would be back with us and TIMAC very soon. The news of her passing leaves a hole in our hearts.

In her friend's words:

Devon has fought her fight to the end and is now resting in peace. She went in to the hospital last week due to pain and ended up going in for an emergency surgery Thursday, September 18th. The surgery was to remove the pressure and blood found in the brain. However, it was not to save her life, only to prolong it as there were additional tumors growing on her brain stem. After the surgery, Devon was in a comatose state and attached to a breathing tube until last night. Thankfully close friends and family were able to say their goodbyes before she breathed her last breath.

If you'd like to send your condolences to Devon's family please send an e-mail to rememberingdevonmarkert@gmail.com, and her friends will have it posted on Devon's blog at www.devonmarkert.blogspot.com

If you have any photos of Devon, you can post them at http://drop.io/devonmarkert. This is where you can view a 13 minute video of her TIMAC presentation in May 2006.

Update on September 29, 2008.
You can read obiturary written by Devon's dad at http://www.legacy.com/dailybreeze/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=118006918 and sign in the guest book.

5th and 6th Meetings of SUHSD TIMAC

2008-07-09T14:18:00.001-07:00

The first year of the Shasta Union High School District's TIMAC has come to a close with the 5th and 6th meetings that took place on May 17th and May 31st of 2008. The May 17th meeting began with a focus on the relationship between mentors and mentees and how they were progressing with their respective projects. Jim Newell led the discussion which also included plans and a schedule for presentations for the next meeting.

The remainder of the time was spent on topics and questions as posed by the members. Justin Loh fielded questions ranging from diverse topics such as Wikis, blogs, webpages, and Moodle, among others. Members were also able to spend time working on their webpages or blogs, and seeking assistance as needed.

Reflections on Losing a Mentor

2008-07-08T13:16:00.000-07:00

Susan Gaer, a long time TIMAC mentor, sent me this article about her first mentor, who helped her get technology in her classroom and then find ways to use it. I post it here as a testament to the mentoring process (this one was spontaneous!) and to the ability the Internet gives us to connect with the people we need when we need them.

Susan's Article

Most people think of me as super mentor. They believe that the "technology mentor" is a higher-level species who understands the technology they inevitably don't. That is not how I see the word mentor to mean. By dictionary definition it is "a trusted counselor or guide". To me my mentors and mentees always ended up being my good friends and trusted colleagues teaching me more than I could ever hope to teach them.

I found out on Monday, July 7, that my very first mentor, Leni Donlan died last year. I want to tell you about Leni so you can know her as I did. I met her in 1994 online with AOL's educational community. I was teaching a class of literacy lao/hmong and lahu refugees most with no writing system in their own language. Most of the people in the school at the time told me they had been in this class for a long time and expectations were low. It was a rural community in Central California and information and training was hard to come by. I found AOL's educational community and met Leni Donlan who showed me how to work the system to get what I wanted.

After I got what I wanted ( a modem, phone line and 386 computer) she helped me developed projects and chats with this particular group of students. The activities were great but the real learning took place as I watched students who were considered to be the most marginal in society start to make a difference. We participated in a post card project with a class in Ohio who we sent lemon grass to. They had never had lemon grass before so my students sent instructions to use the lemongrass. Next we read an essay about how a blind and deaf girl( I think I remember her name as Christie)could hear popcorn pop by putting her hand over the corn to feel the vibration of the popping.

We made cookbooks which bought us a industrial level stove and the book was purchased by "Legal Foods' in Boston.This led to Kathleen Ferenz and I doing a project where ESL students tasted condiments and wrote down their thoughts. Mustard was not a winner. I moved on to the post card project and then took a step on the wild side. I had my ESL Laotian tribal groups take a trip on Westward HO. I never thought it would work. There was so much culture to learn that the other students were brought up with, but when we all started baking Indian bread and learning line dancing, I knew it was one of the most amazing projects I had every participated in.

Leni would come and chat with my class on a regular basis and she said they could always hold their own language wise. She moved on, I moved on and that could have been the end of the story. However, the lessons Leni taught me have been the base of everything I have done since that time in 1994. Leni was one of the most important influences in my instructional life and she was also a great friend. That is what a real mentor is. Leni encapsulated all that and more for me. My students and I will miss her influence in the coming years.

Final Presentations on May 8 & 9

2008-05-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, Cohort 4 participants reported on how their first year of TIMAC involvement and technology integration went by. On Friday, we heard from Cohort 3 about their second year. As usual, this is the most nerve-racking, but also the most exciting two days for the participants. In the afternoons everyone participated in hands-on workshops, Time-saving Tips for MS Word 03 & 07 and Using Picasa Online Workshop. Here are a few quotes:

I enjoyed the presentations in the morning. They were informative, well-presented, with a great variety of technology topics.

The presentations were excellent. Helped me in focusing on my own ideas for next year. I will go home and play with Picasa. I think my students and I will enjoy doing this. I think an on-line work shop at my site would be great.

I loved getting back to basics with the Word tips. Sometimes I forget that this is a very valuable approach to take with the staff that I work with.

The photos in this slideshow were mostly taken by Peter Hubbard, Penny Pearson, Shin Song and Tina Sander.

TIMAC at CATESOL 2008

2008-05-23T16:29:00.000-07:00

From April 10-13, CATESOL's 39th State Conference was held in Sacramento, and many TIMACers were both the participants and presenters at this largest annual event for California and Nevada ESL teachers.

This is the list of all technology related workshops at CATESOL 2008.
Some of the TIMAC presenters were: Kristi Reyes, Suzanne Ludlum, Sharon Danserau, Blair Roy, Tina Sander, Catherine McNally, Cindy Wislofsky, Katalin Gyrindak, and Diane Wallis.

4th Meeting of the SUHSD TIMAC

2008-04-29T09:32:00.000-07:00

On April 19th, the fourth meeting of the Shasta Union High School District's TIMAC met once again at the campus of North State Independence High School in Redding, California. Mr. Newell began the meeting by sharing his thoughts on his upcoming retirement and assuring all in attendance that he will continue to be involved in our district's TIMAC.

The conversation then turned into a spirited exchange of thoughts regarding this group's role in our district, citing a need for a proactive approach toward integrating relevant technology in our classrooms. This topic along with others only goes to show the level of passion and involvement by the members of this group.

Next the attention shifted to TIMAC member and Enterprise High School teacher Dave Peek, who gave in depth analysis of student usage on a course website. Having done this project for his Master's Thesis, Mr. Peek shared his data and experience which consisted of several years worth of research and implementation. The members had an opportunity to see what a well-designed class page looks like by browsing Mr. Peek's Biology website. Each person paid close attention to the site, especially since Starbucks gift cards were on the line if he/she could correctly answer questions about what they were looking at in an impromptu quiz.

After Mr. Peek spoke, TIMAC member and North State Independence High School teacher Laura Carlisle gave an overview to webquests, demystifying them and demonstrating how to appropriately create one. The group then had the opportunity to create one themselves based on his/her own discipline.

Justin Loh wrapped up the meeting by introducing Wikis to the group. After giving a brief introduction to them, the group was let loose to create their own free wiki. Synergy was taking place as mentees invited each other to work on each other's wiki. In addition, mentees began to see the possibilities of linking wikis to his/her own webpage.

So-Cal Regional Meeting on April 18th

2008-04-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

Good Morning,

This past Friday I had the privilege of hosting our regional TIMAC
meeting at my site, Downey Adult School. It was a great time to talk
about our current projects, the successes and challenges, and of course
chat it up with our friends. We were also given a 30 minute
demonstration by one of our lab teachers on VISTA, Jim Turnbough. There
are so many tips and tricks that we learned in our short time together.
We are all looking forward to our reunion in May.

Best Regards,

Mia Reed

SUHSD TIMAC: Meetings #2 and #3

2008-03-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

The second meeting for the Shasta Union High School District (SUHSD) TIMAC was held on February 23, 2008 at North State Independence High School (NSIHS). Program administrator Jim Newell facilitated the first two hours of our meeting during which, such topics of discussion included current uses of technology by our members, mentee/mentor project ideas, and feedback from the previous assignment (members were to visit a website and review it for use and relevance).

During the second part of our meeting, Justin Loh led the group in an investigation into the use of podcasting in education (see Wikipedia article on podcast). Using the website Podomatic.com, all in attendance were able to go through the procedure of easily creating a podcast that could be used in a variety of ways inside the classroom from recording a lecture to providing a new kind of project for students to complete and share with others. Though there were some technical difficulties here and there, they were not enough to prevent our members coming away with a new and exciting resource to bring into the classroom.

The third meeting for the SUHSD TIMAC was held on March 15, 2008 at NSIHS. Jim Newell wasted no time by making a point about teacher and student-built websites and the need to recognize them as representations of our schools and culture. The ideal is that by empowering teachers with the knowledge of how to build web pages, teachers will be able to more effectively communicate with students and parents by posting homework, notes, and class lectures on an effectively designed web site; all the while proving to the world that he/she is becoming a true navigator of technology.

Next, Justin Loh presented to the group three of the most popular website hosts/builders around: Yahoo! GeoCities, GooglePages, and Blogger (see Wikipedia article on blog). After providing an overview of each of the three, including their differences and similarities, each member was then able to choose a site based on his/her own personality and preferences; in almost equal thirds, several chose Yahoo! GeoCities, several chose GooglePages, and others chose Blogger. Plenty of time was given for discovery learning as these teachers learned how easy it was to have a site up and running within minutes. In fact, many teachers immediately started synergizing different resources by posting a link to their respective podcast (from the previous meeting) on their new page! Furthermore, teachers who started with one site such as Blogger moved on to GooglePages for comparison’s sake in order to see which one best suited their needs. When our time came to an end for this activity, each teacher came away with a webpage to do with as they saw fit for his/her classroom.

Our group took a brief field trip up to our district’s IT department where we met with IT Director Mike Vincelli ,who was happy to show us the inner workings of one of the most advanced IT departments in Northern California. After this, Mr. Vincelli answered questions from the group ranging from the district’s plans for future technology investments and computer use policies. This concluded our third successful meeting of the SUHSD TIMAC.

With the school year reaching its climax and thus the amount of time that is demanded from each teacher, we are all very pleased and proud of the continued determination, passion, and participation by each of our members. Our attendance continues to be near perfect just as it was when we began in January. So it is with high spirits that we look forward to a fourth and equally successful meeting in April.

TIMAC Regional Meeting at the Santa Cruz Adult School

2008-03-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

On Friday, March 21, Rebecca Ring rode her Harley while Hongyan Zheng drove over the Hill for the first time to met Tina Sander at the Santa Cruz Adult School.

After peeking into various classes and meeting the few people that hadn’t taken off for Spring Break yet, Rebecca, Hongyan, and Tina discussed their projects and shared some technology tips. Rebecca talked about how she is trying to get all of the teachers at the Monterey Adult School to bring their students to the computer class for the first time and she asked about Web sites and making Web sites. Hongyan shared some of her experience with video and audio recording and showed us the wonderful video that she created (http://milpitasadulted.wikispaces.com/ ). Taking occasional breaks to play concentration on Tina’s SmartBoard (in order to understand SmartBoards more), Rebecca, Hongyan, and Tina discussed how ambitious everyone was in the beginning by trying to work with seven groups of people or by taking every class to the lab multiple times while creating newsletters and putting on workshops. However, the reality of time limitations and unforeseen administrative or technological challenges made it more realistic for everyone to concentrate on fewer goals and only a few mentees.

Still optimistic and positive about their projects and mentees, Hongyan and Rebecca then shared some technology tips. Hongyan showed how to create a wikispace which Rebecca promptly signed up for. Rebecca brought a copy of SnagIt and showed how to capture screenshots.

Having plenty to think about and a clearer plan of their projects and presentation in May, the trio created a motorcycle, motorcycle, car parade to a local restaurant on the beach at the harbor. Enjoying the last rays of sunshine, the thundering of the ocean, the sneakiness of the seagulls, Rebecca, Hongyan, and Tina celebrated with Tacos and Fajitas and thoughts of how wonderful TIMAC is.

TIMAC & TMN at CUE, March 6-8, 2008

2008-03-26T12:01:00.001-07:00

Hear the impressions by the adult education attendees at CUE:

Computer Using Educators (CUE) [http://www.cue.org/] was founded in 1978 to support teachers in using technology effectively in the classroom. It has grown significantly over the years, and now has thousands of members, making it one of the largest organizations of its type in the country. Although membership is open to all educational professionals, the focus has been on K12.

CUE holds its annual conference every year in Palm Springs. Several years ago, there were only a small handful of adult educators attending the conference, even though it provides an excellent opportunity for educational technology people to network and to learn what’s new in the world of technology, but over the last few years this handful has grown to about 20. This year at CUE, Suzanne Ludlum of Oakland Adult School offered a 3-hour workshop on digital storytelling using Windows MovieMaker. Barry Bakin of LAUSD Division of Adult and Community Education presented on Internet Projects Students and Teachers Love. Elliot Jordan, formerly of Burbank Adult School, demonstrated to teachers the many possibilities of open source software. Susan Gaer, a Google-certified Educator and ESL Instructor at Santa Ana College Adult Education, partnered with Barry Bakin to show teachers how to adapt any lesson to include technology and the Internet. She also demonstrated her collaborative online student projects, and volunteered in the Second Life Sandbox, showing people how to use Second Life, a virtual environment.

Other hot topics at the conference included Open Source software, Moodle for hosting class Web sites, blogging (educators have their own category, “edublogger”), Google tools such as Google Earth, social networking. The conference also offers skill building classes on programs such as Flash, PhotoShop, and Excel. On Saturday, many student groups demonstrate their projects at the Student Technology Showcase. This would be an excellent opportunity for adult education students to showcase their work and get some recognition.

Adult education in California would never be able to host such a large and diverse technology conference, with over 200 vendors in the exhibit area, so it’s encouraging to see more adult educators participating in this conference and contributing their enthusiasm, experience and knowledge.

(written by Marian Thacher for OTAN News)

January 18th Training Day

2008-03-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

TIMAC Cohort 4 participants met on January 18th for their Day 3 of training and networking. These were some of the activities they engaged in:
Mentoring Skills Workshop

Screencasting Workshop

Myrna Montenegro | TIMAC at LAUSD DACE

2008-03-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

This article was published in LAUSD Division of Adult and Community Education Newsletter, The Connection Winter 2008.

Field Notes

Technology brought Myrna Montenegro and Mike Gurule of North Hollywood-Poly CAS together this year. No, not Internet dating, but the Technology Integration Mentor Academy (TIMAC), a special mentor training program sponsored by the Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (OTAN). The academy trains technology mentors to work with classroom teachers on integrating more technology into their classrooms. Myrna, who teaches in the ESL computer lab, is mentoring Mike, who teaches ESL Beginning Low. Mike wanted to use technology in a meaningful way for his students, so he and Myrna developed a technology integration plan based on setting up two tech centers in the classroom. At one center, students will use CD players to work on listening activities that correlate to the main lesson. To save limited resources, Mike and Myrna will record the activities using computer technology and burn the CDs themselves. At the other center, the two computers Mike has in his classroom will be used to extend what students are doing in the ESL computer lab. For example, one computer may be used as a research station to look up job information online; the other will be used to create PowerPoint presentations about various careers.

The first meeting of the SUHSD TIMAC

2008-02-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

The very first meeting of the Shasta Union High School District’s (SUHSD) Technology Integration Mentorship Academy (TIMAC) was a huge success! Twenty teachers were nominated from their respective schools representing disciplines as varied as Mathematics, Social Science, Language Arts, Science, Business, and Special Education; all were united in the common belief that a pervasive use of technology throughout the staff and curriculum can provide new opportunities for learning.

The first meeting of SUHSD TIMAC was held at the campus of North State Independence High School on January 26^th, 2008. Program administrator Jim Newell began our Saturday session by welcoming the new mentors into the Academy and providing background information on how the program came into being and its inspiration: the state’s own TIMAC sponsored by the Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (OTAN).

Next, Mr. Newell introduced Dr. Paul Porter, a trainer for TIMAC at the state level, who spoke about the role of the technology mentor and specifically how to create and sustain an effective mentor/mentee relationship. After an enthusiastic, interactive, and well-received presentation, the session broke for lunch, where the new mentors were able to interact with one another in a more casual fashion.

Mr. Newell kicked off the second half of the session by introducing Justin Loh, teacher for Shasta Adult School, North State Independence High School (NSIHS), and Cohort 4 member of the state’s TIMAC. Mr. Loh provided overviews of several technologies being used at NSIHS including its Moodle-based website, teacher collaboration and communication via Google Docs, and multimedia enrichment through Discovery Networks’ United Streaming. In addition, the group was instructed on how to sign up for the SUHSD TIMAC Yahoo! Group; a resource and online meeting place to exchange ideas and share information on best practices of technology integration in the classroom. Mr. Loh finished the session by soliciting suggestions from the group over possible ideas to pursue in upcoming sessions including making webpages, editing video, podcasting, and wikis, to name a few.

The session concluded with Mr. Newell discussing his vision for the program as well as establishing dates for future sessions. Very special thanks to Dr. Porter for helping kick start the creation of a new TIMAC!

TIMAC School Site Visits: Peter Hubbard at Berkeley Adult School

2008-01-02T16:23:00.000-08:00

Here's another account of a TIMAC Site visit. Read it here.

And here's a video of Peter's activities as described in the article.

TIMAC School Site Visits: Castro Valley Adult School

2007-11-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

In my role as a ‘super mentor’ I visited Rebecca D’Harlingue and the adult learners in her advanced ESL class on November 15^th 2007 at Castro Valley Adult School, www.cvadult.org. In her role as a TIMAC mentor, Rebecca D’Harlingue will be working with a number of colleagues, ESL, ADP, Spanish Language and Medical Billing teachers, to help them implement a technology project of their choice within this school year. Rebecca herself is teaching in a technology-enhanced classroom with a ceiling-mounted data projector connected to her computer, DVD and VHS players, speakers, and to her new most favorite tool (in her own words) – a document camera. One of Rebecca’s colleagues/mentees, Elizabeth Gibb, teaches a beginning level ESL class. Her goal this year is to effectively incorporate the use of a PC tablet in combination with her technology-enhanced classroom setup. This tablet is wirelessly connected to the teacher’s station and can be circulated among learners who use a mouse or a tablet-pen to manipulate the objects projected on the big screen.

TIMAC @ CCAE South, November 16-18, 2007

2007-11-20T13:50:00.000-08:00

Susan Coulter, ABE instructor from Baldwin Park ACE & Cohort 2 participant, presented at the conference this past weekend. Her workshop was about fun and meaningful ways to use Excel in adult ed classroom. Don't miss the opportunity to attend her online workshop on the same topic. Learn more on OTAN's training pages.

In addition to being a seasoned presenter, Susan was presented a prestigious CALCO Award by CCAE South Coast Section in 2006.

Training Days 1 & 2, October 11 & 12, 2007

2007-10-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

Cohort 4 members attended their first two days of training and networking on October 11 & 12. The second day they met with the members of Cohort 3. Some of the topics discussed during the two days were: Mentoring Skills, Setting Goals, Examples of Technology Integration in Adult Ed, Screencasting (recording video tutorials) and Use of Audio (focusing on Audacity - open source sound editing software).
Links and documents can be found on TIMAC's wiki pages.

More About TIMAC Alumni

2007-10-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

This message came from Eliot Jordan who represented Burbank Adult School in Cohort 3. Elliot is an advocate of Open Source software and has done workshops about this topic in the school year 2006/07.

Hi ...

Yes I am swamped with work (feel free to share the pic at
your next gathering :) but am really enjoying the
classes. I'm also a TA for an Information Technology class and
it is so perfectly matched to my experience-I love it
and I love being involved with teaching at a
University!!

But I also miss all of you and I wish ALL OF
OTAN/TIMAC a very productive and happy, healthy open
source holiday season.

regards to all!

Elliot

What TIMAC Graduates are Doing

2007-09-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

From: Pam Moyer (Cohort 2)
Friday, September 07, 2007 6:49:02 PM
Dear Branka
Today, in the morning, I prepared a Power Point tribute to Pavarotti from online news photos and then played his music in class. Doris's new students then proceeded to create 8 mini power point shows. During this timely lesson, we listened to Pavarotti's music, created and shared each student-ceated-project in a 2 hour class. How fun it was!!!! How fun it is to be an TIMAC grad!!!! My goal this year is to be able to add music and voice to our shows. Do your have resources for doing this???
Thanks for your constant support.
Pam Moyer

Here's Pam's Final Presentation from May 2007

PamMoyerTIMAC-2007final

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